Photo's and info submitted by Harold Endean:

Harold,
Is that the finished product?.
If it is it will leak like a sieve!.
Are you allowed to clamp wires like that in an entry to a panel?.
Sure there are bushings, but what is the bare minimum in this respect?.
I see a green wire to the left of the 2nd pic, it looks like it is going through the top of the clamp, but seems to be outside of the thread in the lower part of the panel??!.
It makes me wonder if this wasn't a Home Depot advised install?.
Customer must have asked "what can I use for the bend into the house?"
HD guy "Use this, water or wires, it's all the same, the check-out guy told me so".

Trumpy,

I think the green wire has it's own clamp.

What's the silver stuff at the bottom of the last two pics? Coax?

Mike

Black wire with white paint splatters, probably coax.

Looks like they found a way to solve the question of whether or not a bushing is needed on a male adapter.

I really don't get it. These amature service upgrades. How in the world do these people know how to properly do a load calc. and determine conductor sizes, but can't figure out things like putting conductors in conduit?

It's like being able to rebuild a carbeurator but not knowing how to put gas in the tank.

-John

Harold:
Sure glad you failed him on the 3/0's. The guy looks like he got pretty rough with them while installing. Notice the damaged insulation.

Mike (mamills)

Back when I couldn't spell NEC I did a DIY upgrade from 60A to 200A service on my house. I nicked up the outer coating on the THHN I installed; pretty badly. I made a point of asking the inspector about it and he told me not to worry since that covering was only there for oil protection and oil wasn't likely a problem in my house. (no I haven't opened an oil change shop in my basement since then...)

Any thoughts.

Also what's the SEU cable on the left? What's the service size. 200amps hence the failure of the 3/0 right?

RSlater,
RSmike

Its always been my understanding that the nylon jacket is there simply for mechanical protection. I remember reading somewhere (I can't remember where) that when the UL tests wire they remove the nylon jacket from the wire.

That's what a manufacturer's rep told me about the nylon jacket.
I asked him what about if the jacket gets damaged when it first comes off the reel? Does the insulation get damaged while being pulled through the rest of the run?
He told me "it's UL listed and everyone uses it...NEXT QUESTION?"
Anybody who ducks a simple question in that manner makes me suspicious. Since I've have problems in the past with THHN, I prefer to avoid it whenever possible (it's not often possible).

I like how he used tape on the conductors where it comes through the connectors. The owner must have had safety in mind when doing that. LOL.

These pictures are not the final ones. I still have to go back. These were the 1st and 2nd attempt by the homeowner. The silver wire in the bottom pictures, I think was a CATV wire just hanging around out there. Or else it was a piece of scrap wire holding up the plastic that was covering the service.

I also forgot, he will be using a new pice of 4/0 seu cable to go from the meter pan into the service panel. He is going to remove the individual wires and redo the service the right way. (I hope!)

Why would you fail him on the 3/0 for 200 amp service? This is a dwelling? table 310-15(b)6 seems to allow 2/0 Cu for a 200 amp service. I see the pipe issues, and how he brought it into the panel is horrible, but the size is ok. Is pic 1 nad 2 the same service, seems like copper at the panel and AL at the meter socket.

Trekkie,

I didn't fail him for using 3/0 CU wire, it is just that it needed to be in a pipe. So I told him that he could either put it in a pipe, but his bends would have been very difficult to do. (See pic # 1) I also told him that he could use a 4/0 SEU cable and still be able to make his bend into that service panel. So on the second try, he used SEU AL cable. He just left it in the pipe.