Got a troubleshooting call on Saturday.

Complaints included:
>Arcing in Panel
>Arcing on LP tank and lines
>Getting shocked when trying to open panel to shut down the circuits
>Trouble started after Plumber changed to new pump on Friday.

When I got there I discovered:
>Panel was hot according to volt tic
(Donned my rubber boots, hardhat, safety glasses and rubber gloves)
>Killed the main, after shower of sparks from terminals in main breaker.
>All EGC's were fastened to various lag bolts mounting the panel, with burn marks.
>The GEC was fastened to a Lag bolt too, with burn marks.
>No bonding screw was present.
>EGC's were NOT bonded to the Neutral buss (no disco)
>Pump feed was wired correctly, other than no tape on white wire.
>Pump was wired correctly at pressure switch, didn't want to pull the pump up to look...
>However! AHA!! The disconnect for the pump was wired as follows:
Black wires through fused connection
White wires (remember those?) on the ground buss!
Bare wires on the other fused connection!?!?!?!

BTW, said disco for pump was mounted on a tree above the pumphouse...my wife had the camera that day [Linked Image]

LP tank was near said tree.

Theory:
The hot white wire was making the disco box hot, which made the tree hot, which made it's way to the LP tank, which returned to the house on the LP line, connected with the useless ground rod to make the panel hot. The bad main was just a coincidence...

What do you think?

Oh yeah, changed the pump disco connects to be correct, and replaced the main breaker, and corrected the grounding problems in the panel. No more problems.


[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 06-19-2001).]

-Virgil
Residential/Commercial Inspector
5 Star Inspections
Member IAEI