Must have been the same guy I caught "cleaning and oiling" the breakers the other day.

I know....I know the answer!!! It's sOOOOO obvious.

There's a 200 Amp main breaker, but only a 150 Amp meter socket!

Installations like this bring to mind the old ceremonies for drumming a disgraced officer out of the corps....

I can see it now:

Assembled in the town square, neatly lined up, are all the AHJ's, Licensed Contractors, Journeymen .... and, with the best view, the apprentices.

The accused is paraded forth. His Carhartt's are removed, to be replaced by some poly-cotton jumpsuit. His electrical tools are, one by one, dropped into a vat of molten metal. His hands are liberally coated with Gorilla Glue, then inserted into his pockets. Finally, his hard hat is replaced with a funnel.

Then the disgraced is taken to a soup kitchen, nearest the bus station. Good Riddance.

I'm having trouble finding anything right, other than the bubble cover on the GFCI (though a cover plate too would have been nice...)

/mike

lol! [ strains of "If I only had a brain...." ]

Can someone tell me where the red and black wires go...Are they tied to anything? The GFCI perhaps....Why are they so nicely taped up?

It looks like a work in process.

RSLater,
RSmike

Get rid of the small (12 AWG? 10?) wire from the meter socket to the main lugs, and then I might accept that. That's the part that screams "hack" to me.

Maybe that wire is being used as the main fuse ...

I'd guess the red and black go to the permanent panel inside the house; when the temp is no longer needed, this panel will be removed and the red and black lines will be pulled into the meter can. They are taped up so they won't accidentally touch anything. The GFCI is connected to the lone 20A breaker and to the ground bar (with both ground and neutral in the same hole). The 12ga back to the meter is the main fuse; the 200A breaker is just the disconnect :-)

hopefully no one's around when that "fuse" decides to go!

I'd guess the red and black go to the permanent panel inside the house; when the temp is no longer needed, this panel will be removed and the red and black lines will be pulled into the meter can. They are taped up so they won't accidentally touch anything.

The lack of bushings around the red and black is to give the next guy a head start on stripping the insulation.

The old SE cable has been cut off at the lintel...don't have a guess why it's in the panel. BTW the meter was live but not for long. After about four attempts, the owner finally got a licensed contractor. As for the inside, this house was a fire job (wonder why) with new walls, trusses and etc.

The outlet box wasn't secured to the wal.

Ray, welcome

Do you suppose that the black and red conductors through that sharp hole are intended to be connected to the mechanical lugs bus-tapped into the bottom of the panel?

Scary

You forgot some other potential audience members: The POCO linemen, the local FD, and IEEE members!

I see a Darwin Award candidate in the making here folks!

I don't understand why this was done. With nearly the same amount of effort, the proper sized conductors could have been installed. Never mind what I would consider a poor job of landing the poco conductors on the line side of the meter.

Two things I observe about the load conductors from the main disco/sub panel to the panel somewhere inside the house; 1) The neutral conductor is way too short to reach the buss at the top of the panel and would have to be spliced, and 2) the three conductors (red, black and bare) don't appear to pass through any kind of conduit fitting, or even a clamp of some sort. Please correct me if I am wrong, but isn't there supposed to also be a separate grounding conductor from this main/sub panel to the panel inside?

I have seen numerous panels like this in my part of the world, primarily for mobile home service poles, where the main conductors to the home land in those bottom lugs, and another couple of breakers are supplied for such purposes as a water well pump, outbuildings, etc.

Mike (mamills)

Those taped conductors go nowhere...they were cut where they exit the wall and there was no panel in the house. Again, this was a fire job and the inside was totally gutted. It is allowed to build the service with a GFCI outlet below for temporary use, but must be complete except for branch circuits and panel feeders. This is an example of an owner builder who is way over his head.

Ray

Thanks, Ray. Somehow, I missed your posts above.

Mike (mamills)

hell, it was only temporary...what's the big deal?

It was very temporary. Our juristiction requires that a TUG be complete, then have a pre-power before the feeders can be energized.

From the looks of it I'd swear something already went HA-BANG in the meter socket... look at the left side load lug, looks burnt and I see spatter at the back of the can, not to mention there is that weird white film on the PoCo feeders and all that other burnt looking stuff in the bottom of the can.. Other than that WHAT was the person that installed the panel thinking? Wait let me take a stab at it... That #12 between the meter can and panel is going to act as a "cabinet heater" when under load to help prevent condensation from forming inside the enclosure???
Sound good?

A.D

The left load lug was definitely burned. Would have liked to have seen the origonal panel too, but it was removed before I got there...mabe the insurance co has it.

Ray

Unbelievable.
Sometimes, A line from a play from 1877 applies.
This is one of those times.
The Line:

"Against stupidity, the very gods themselves contend in vain". The Maid of Orleans Act iii, Sc 6
Friedrich Schiller