We went and tried to do an estimate for a Service Upgrade today. Senior Couple has been renting out 2 suites in the basement for years.

They Called and said they wanted a Panel Upgrade. This is What I found.There is 3 Electric Ranges being fed of this Service.
the sub panel below was added on about 15 years ago they said.

It is being fed with 10/3 nm cable and on a 40 amp Breaker.
There is 2 of the ranges connected to the Sub panel.The Main Breaker is 100 Amps







[This message has been edited by dougwells (edited 01-10-2007).]

Wow!

I hope when you upgrade it, it gets relocated, or they move the toilet.

Those are interesting romex staples. Haven't seen them before.

The extra heat will keep you warm while you are doing your business

While your at it, keep the 10/3, but wrap it around the toilet seat... i hate hitting a cold seat first thing in the morning when it's winter, but I guess it does wake me up.

(credit goes to JohnJ0906 for giving me this idea)

I would also guess the location has 2 illegal occupancies. If this is any example of the work to make this a triplex then I suspect the tenants will be victims of some disaster.
This brings me to another bitch about provincial electrical inspections. The seldom go and even when they do they don't report to the municipality where this crap exists. I suppose in this case it was not an electrician that did this work even if he had a ticket.

What leads you to believe this was ever inspected, mike? Not sure I would even want to touch this job.. doug, what did you tell this elderly couple?

Check out the bare transformer and wire-nuts hiding under the edge of the dead-front on the right.

Most municipalities around here have some sort of compliance guidelines for secondary suites eg. subdivison of a primary residence only, square footage limitations, fire alarm/egress/separation/etc.

I would find out from the AHJ what sort of scrutiny a potentially non-compliant suite (or suites) may come under during a service upgrade.

This could be something the owners are not prepared for. OTOH, this may the driving force behind the upgrade.

Unless most of you are up to the gills in work, I question the logic in turning away jobs that are less that ideal. (Isn't that what T&M is for?)

Trumpy, that's actually a pretty common practice around here, all the 120V wiring's in the panel, and what you see wirenutted is probably just the power for the doorbell
-Will

Wouldn't the 120 line for the Transformer go through the panel knockout where it's mounted? The wire-nutted wires might be low-volt, even though they used yellow wire nuts.

Ian A.

3 ranges eh?
Apart from the undersized sub panel feeder, undersized main service box, lousy vapour barrier, and wrong staple on the #6 loomex, and insufficient clearances, I see nothing wrong with it.
Seriously, what do you think? About $1600 to fix plus permit?

those do not look like cable connectors on the 10/3. Flexible metallic conduit fittings maybe

Doug, at least those panel directories are written in English....around here they're usually written in Italian

I'm surprised that nobody has pointed out the label on the subpanel..

Who is the telephone company there? Those signal circuit protectors look like the "Cook Electric" ones that Contel (and presumably other independents) used in the 60s and 70s.

IMO, those are what Bell Canada would have installed in the 1960s/1970s, where it would be installed indoors.