Unprotected # 12 wire

[rmrlmw]

I took the cover off of a panel and found something strange.

The panel is a 208V, 200A Main Lug and is fed by a 200A Main Breaker 40' away.

The distribution for the panel is Qty 18 1 pole breakers. These breakers feed light loads downstream.

The strange part is that the breakers are not mounted to the panel chassis. They are mounted to the the side of the panel can and someone tapped the panel bus with # 12 wires feeding each 20A 1P breaker. This wire is clearly unprotected.

Is this a vioaltion of UL and NEC - or is does some rule allow this type of assemlby? Can I have UL approve in the field or should it be chnaged out..?

[don_resqcapt19]

240.21(B)(1) would permit the tap, but the modifications to the bus would void the listing and be a violation of 110.3(B). A field inspection and approval by a NRTL would most likely be much more expensive than replacing the panel.
Don

[pierre]

rmrlmw
Is there any way you could get a picture and post it here?
That would be interesting to see.

Pierre

[noxx]

Personally, I'm interested to see in what manner the installer terminated #12 to the line side of the CB.