There is nothing wrong with this type installation........
Sure, when it is used in the manner the manufacturer intended. With the multiple violations/hazards I see in this picture, I hope this smarty-pants owner has his liability insurance paid up.
Let's start with leaving the door open, exposing the live buss and fuses;
Add the tap off the LINE bus with the white asbestos covered wire;
Add the attachment of the worklite to the can for a "neutral" (Bet the lite is used to find dead fuses);
Add the RED wire at the bottom which is at least another unfused tap or is more likely bypassing that bottom fuse!
The use of the fan is to maintain the current carrying capacity of the fuses.
One of the stupidest excuses I've heard in years. If things in that panel are getting so hot that the fuses are blowing from the heat, the whole panel is a fire waiting to happen! And what if the fan quits? Now you have an open panel to let the potential fire/arc from exploding fuses out in the open.
This will cause inconvenence for the tenants and lead to more replacing of the fuses.
Boo-de-freakin-hoo!!!! So the tenants lose power because they're overloading the circuit. It'll be a lot more inconvenient when the building burns down!
....do not have any greater chance of fires started in these installations than you would have in the circuit breaker boxes but rather in the wiring on the user side which is where the vast majority of electrical fires start.
There are exceptions to every rule and this situation fits that call.
When the fuse fails it will always fail in the shutdown mode in that electricity can no flow through it to the user side.
Unless it's bypassed by the piece of red THHN.
To Tommy O.: I sincerely hope you didn't touch any of the electrical system in that entire building. You may have left yourself open to some grave liability thanks to that owner's cavalier and incredibly foolish attitude toward electricity!!
I give that owner the Darwin Award of the Millenium!!
edited to add: I wish I could have used both the Exclamation and angry post icons on this one.....never have I seen such raging stupidity!!!
