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Posted By: Admin HVAC contractor saw electricity! - 05/06/02 12:42 PM
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Got a call from a HVAC contractor who had no lug under which to ground his new equipment feeder. My faith in contractors doing a quality job was partially restored in the fact that he did not just leave it hanging. I temporaried the ground in to the gec before I took the picture. All of this work has been done by licensed contractors. Starting with the grounding electrode conductor run in unbonded EMT which was standard pratice in this area for period in which it was installed. At some later date there was an addition to the house at which time some ten to twelve 20amp 120 volt circuits were landed in this panel. The breaker in the 1 and 3 slots is a 40amp 2 pole which has 4 of these circuits landed on it. Many similar connections are obvious. The ground fault is not connected to the receptical in the wiremold box attached to the bottom of the panel. The last addition was a generator that is required for life sustaining medical equipment. The generator is connected via a 30 amp twist lock plug connected to 12/4so cable run to the transfer switch the load is connected via a 100amp breaker. The ground from this connection is under the lug that is missing the screw. You can almost smell the smoke!! Homeowner agrees they need to upgrade but funds are limited because of the new heatpump. What would you do in this situation? A 125amp 24cir panel with breakers mounted beside the meter panel which also has missing dead front cover. On second thought the HVAC contractor may have only called me because he saw electricity when he was installing his breaker. You know the blue flame usually followed by oh-$*%# . The kicker is that the 100amp load connected to the generator is a Federal Pacific panel inside the house, in a clothes closet. I will admit I am going to have to find out just how this transfer switch works before I touch this, as I don't see how it disconnects the poco connection.

Just another day at the office,
Watthead
Posted By: wirewiz Re: HVAC contractor saw electricity! - 05/06/02 04:48 PM
I work with a few HVAC contractors very close, Shouldn't they should have told the home owner to consult a Electrical Contractor first to see if the service could handle the new load. Just my opinion, What's yours?
Wirewiz
Posted By: CTwireman Re: HVAC contractor saw electricity! - 05/07/02 12:36 AM
One word: UGLY!!!!!

Yup, its time for a new service.

Is this California or Nevada by any chance? Just guessing, seeing as how that's an all-in-one.
Posted By: CTwireman Re: HVAC contractor saw electricity! - 05/07/02 12:38 AM
One word: UGLY!!!!!

Yup, its time for a new service.

Is this California or Nevada by any chance? Just guessing, seeing as how that's an all-in-one.
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