Folks, please bear with me as I am now going to rant a bit... [Linked Image]


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Though I had taken pains to shut off my circuit, and power down ever appliance in the area....well, the wires were not twisted together under the nut, and a money changer in the next room was somehow tied in- along with another circuit. The money changer said "hello" to 220 volts, and died. Oops.
{bold emphasis mine}

Arrrggghhh! It is precisely this kind of thing happening which makes me so adamantly opposed to shared neutrals!! Here's a case of a qualified, experienced electrician taking all proper and reasonable steps and WHAM!!

Be realistic, in any environment, there WILL be others adding onto/changing wiring, moving breakers around, replacing receptacles and fixtures!!

It doesn't make a darn bit of difference how experienced one is, if you don't have x-ray vision or the ability to sniff out electrons there will always be the unexpected changes waiting to bite you in the tail!

Be honest, folks: how many of you turned off what you thought was the right circuit and got surprised because of backfeed, mislabeled disconnects/breakers, or accidentally opening a neutral you thought was dead?

and:

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You can't buy a 3 phase 6 wire device, disconnect, panelboard, transformer, or service, I fail to see the point of running individual neutrals on branch circuits.

Apples and oranges....no one ever said that feeders, panelboards, transformers or services need to be set up with discrete neutrals. [Linked Image] We're talking branch circuits, which are subject to a lot more "unqualified" repairs or modifications.

I think the point will become quite clear when something bad happens to a circuit on your "watch". Again, not a reflection on anyone's workmanship, please do not take it as such. Just consider that it would only take a change in load factors (those pesky harmonics again [Linked Image] ), or even a simple lack of knowledge by someone attempting to add on to or repair something on that circuit.

I'll say it yet again, just because Code allows it doesn't make it safest or right. Code is and always will be a minimum standard.

finally:

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Reno, you just pointed out a good reason for handle-tying multi-wire circuits' breaker handles. Plus that assures no overloading the neutral by same-phasing the hots.

Sounds like in this case even if the handles were tied, it wouldn't have helped. Reno's description implies that some questionable changes or taps were involved.

As others have noted in this thread, it all boils down to one's own experiences and/or biases on this issue.

Thanks for bearing with me, we now return to our regularly scheduled program.... [Linked Image]

edited for spelling


[This message has been edited by mxslick (edited 01-23-2006).]

Stupid should be painful.