Emergency Tap - 02/05/04 02:53 PM
Found a 100 amp emergency panel fed from a tap of parallel feeders.
The feeders are two sets of 3 ought in two - 2 inch pipes. These have a 350 amp breaker on them.
The tap was made in a pullbox using those piercing type things.
They tapped one set of feeders with #6 wire and ran it about 20 to 30 feet to a panel with an 100 amp main breaker. Did a clamp on test with everything on and theres about 25 amps on each phase.
The panel is mounted above a 30 kva transformer right in front of it. This is funny because 5 feet away there is a clear space.
Plus, the neutral bus of the hacked in emergency panel is connected to the neutral bus on the normal panel.
I told the boss that you cannot tap one side of a parallel feed as it creates an imbalance and that we would need to buy a breaker to refeed the panel and disconnect the tap. Yes, there is room in the main emergency panel for another 3 breakers if needed.
Am I right?
Just want to be sure I am not telling the boss something that will bite me later. Keep in mind my boss is a supervisor with a mangement degree not a technical guy. This is actually good.
The thing about this is that someone went to a lot of trouble to do a lousy job.
The feeders are two sets of 3 ought in two - 2 inch pipes. These have a 350 amp breaker on them.
The tap was made in a pullbox using those piercing type things.
They tapped one set of feeders with #6 wire and ran it about 20 to 30 feet to a panel with an 100 amp main breaker. Did a clamp on test with everything on and theres about 25 amps on each phase.
The panel is mounted above a 30 kva transformer right in front of it. This is funny because 5 feet away there is a clear space.
Plus, the neutral bus of the hacked in emergency panel is connected to the neutral bus on the normal panel.
I told the boss that you cannot tap one side of a parallel feed as it creates an imbalance and that we would need to buy a breaker to refeed the panel and disconnect the tap. Yes, there is room in the main emergency panel for another 3 breakers if needed.
Am I right?
Just want to be sure I am not telling the boss something that will bite me later. Keep in mind my boss is a supervisor with a mangement degree not a technical guy. This is actually good.
The thing about this is that someone went to a lot of trouble to do a lousy job.