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<p align="center">Submitted by Rick Miell
<p align="center">"This shows double lugging of the neutral in a meter can."

Double lugging is probably one of the most common code violations.

Here in WV, it is common to shove as many conductors as possible into a terminal. If there isn't enough room, then strands are cut off of each conductor so they'll fit into the terminal.

Good one, strange that this does not have a "top" nuetral lug....

I was wondering the same thing Sparky. I have seen many 100amp Meter pans with one (central) lug. It must have been permitted at one time. Our meterpans on LI even have a separate lug for a bonding wire if necessary.

Bill,
When I first started in the trade, the local utility supplied all of the meter cans and they only had one neutral conductor lug, but their rules required that the neutral be continuous from the weatherhead to the service panel, so only one lug was required.
Don(resqcapt19)

Don,

I don't know who supplied the ones I have seen, but they had only one lug and the wires (not continuous) just laid on top of each other. They Meterpans (cans?) were round and the ring type.

BUMP
Just going back in time....looking to see who was here and still is her.....
Tom...
Mr Bill
Don...
Sparky??

there was a time that the netural lug was made so you could [should ] do it that way some of you can not rember when the N E C was so smsll that you could cary around in your hip pockrt so your tool pouch would not ride on your hip

In Europe lugs are typically rated for two conductors, but people tend to cram in 3 or more. "Man, those old screw terminal receptacles were far better than the new push-in ones! You could get in up to 4 wires instead of just two!" (that's what an electrician told me 3 years ago). I've even seen breakers with 1.5mm2 solid, stranded, 2.5mm2 solid,... crammed into one lug. Not very sturdy.

And that's what tends to happen here as well. People will just cram conductors in until there's literally no way to squeeze another wire into the bundle. Then they start the "trim off a couple of strands" trick on the larger sizes.

Oh, Sometimes that happens unintentionally... I once rewired a place where two DIYers (a lawyer and a medical doctor) had rewired the bathroom, adding a second panel and a new circuit (the old panel was full and hadd odd old breakers without a DIN rail). They used 2.5mm2 stranded wire for all their work and the bathroom circuit (think 3kW washing machine) had two(!) strands actually under the screw of the breaker, all others had been squeezed out or snapped off. I tried to redo the connections using ferrules but gave in and pulled new wires since the stranded conductors + sleeved ferrules just took up too much space in the boxes.

We also replaced both panels with one large new panel, the old breakers were the Austrian FPE equivalent - NoTrip solid link