ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Violation Photo Forum Earth/bonding violation (U.K.)

Johnno,
I think what Ragnar was referring to is a strip of insulated copper busbar, with forks on it, for each breaker terminal, centre-fed for best current distribution.
All DIN Rail gear here uses a similar arrangement, even for 3-phase boards.
Correct me if I've gone right away from what you were meaning, Ragnar.
Johhno,
Good point mate,
Every now and then you will get some clown that installs some new breakers upside down in a board and without looking at the writing on the breaker front can you tell, this is exacerbated by the fact that there is often poor lighting around a panel, flags would be a great idea, perhaps the same as they have on DIN Rail Surge-Diverters?.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. Of course that isn't commonly done in panels with let's say 50 circuits, but in small residential panels with often no more than 4 circuits that's most common. Some very old breakers (1960s and some German 70s stuff) even allowed you to run a straight piece of bare wire from screw to screw.

One of the straight wire style setups (early 1960s):

The more Austrian style is to bend u-shaped pieces of solid wire and run them from breaker to breaker.

Seeing that "Stab Lock" has crossed the Atlantic is just eerie to me!

Here's a US version

The breakers in my picture were closely related to the infamous Zinsco "No blow" types... Schrack 10A H characteristic, that means "superfast" (H stood for household). The owner had a few shorts, and in all but one instance the 20A slow blow main fuse blew before the breaker tripped. One row of breakers if for the hots, the other are the neutrals. Only 2 wire single phase.

That Austrian panel looks like it wont fit back in! The wire looks a bit on the thin side to me. Those breakers remind me of the early plug on MCBs with the 2 buttons. I see a few of the my favourite choc block. I see you also have an old brit special - wood chip wallpaper it clings to the wall for dear life under 30 coats of paint.

There has never been a tripped breaker in the FPE panel, I am not aware of a way of testing MCBs like an RCD. I suppose fuses are good in this respect, I am not aware of a fuse which failed to open.

The American FPE panel is interesting, I have never seen a 6009A breaker seems a funny size But then again, it does say "NO" on it!
I notice that the FPE breaker has more than 1 wire in it, isnt this a violation over there? To my knowledge there is no such rule here, you regularly see several wires in 1 terminal, not just on breakers but sockets and all else.

It would have fitted I guess, but we were already replacing it when the picture was taken. All wiring is 1.5mm2, so it would have been appropriately protected by the 10A breakers if they had actually been working.
The choc blocks... on one hand they cut the feeder when the installed an RCD in a second panel next to the old one and reattached it with choc blocks. On the other hand there was no ground bus bar, so they connected all the red and yellow/green wires with a choc block.

I actually should have turned the picture 90 degrees to the left, it's sideways.

One of the breakers was missing the black "Off" button... no way to shut off without using a screw driver. It was time for that panel to go!

That stuff isn't wood chip wall paper... it's far worse! That's some kind of coarse sand or little stone chips mixed into paint! Accidentally touch the wall and kiss you skin good bye. It's going right now before we paint.
The walls are a mix of brick and solid concrete...