Wow

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daleuger

daleuger

Senior Member
Location
earth
I'm really starting to kick myself for not taking a camera to work.I walked into a house today and changed out a sub panel with FOUR 20 amp circuits fed off a 70 amp breaker with #10 wire. Swapped that out with a #2 AL feeder and chucked the old fuse box for a nice Square D panel.

What were they thinking though? I wonder about people sometimes.
 
LarryFine

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
daleuger said:
What were they thinking though? I wonder about people sometimes.
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The same as a guy I once stopped from putting a new range circuit on #12NM. He was helping a friend.

Oh, he had the 50a breaker and receptacle in his cart. His reasoning? "The big wire costs too much." :rolleyes:
 
iMuse97

iMuse97

Senior Member
Location
Chicagoland
LarryFine said:
The same as a guy I once stopped from putting a new range circuit on #12NM. He was helping a friend.

Oh, he had the 50a breaker and receptacle in his cart. His reasoning? "The big wire costs too much." :rolleyes:
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I did take the pictures on my phone a few days ago. I'll post them when I get a chance. --2 three-wire, and 4 two wire #12s all splicing in an 8B box with a cover. used red wire nuts. could be a heat problem. yes I agree, what are people thinking?

Another one was a 100 amp service feeding two store fronts on the street level and two large office areas on the second level. he wanted me to do something because so many of the breakers tripped on a hot day in July. I put the backside of my hand against the front of the breakers and nearly singed the hair off my nuckles. They were running copiers, computers, commercial refrigerators (3 large reach-in type), a 35amp AC, tons of lighting for a phone store, on a 90+ day in July and wondered why they were having trouble.
 
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Z

zbang

Senior Member
Location
Roughly 5346 miles from Earls Court
I can't count the number of times I've told some food vendor at an outdoor festival that they simply can't run both/all three/many 1600w hotpots on a single 20a circuit (or, shudder, power strip). They're welcome to try, but after the second breaker reset, I get really testy about it. I don't care it if works somewhere else, it ain't gonna work here. (And if they'd read that stuff in with their application, they'd know that. And no, I can't give you the four more circuits you need since the panel's full up with vendors that actually ordered what they need.)

I love food vendors.
 
daleuger

daleuger

Senior Member
Location
earth
Went back to the same house. All through the basement there are romexes "spliced and taped joints hanging outside the sheetrock and unfinished walls, a heater held in the wall with string and many loose random hot wires hanging out loose. It looks like they got some teenagers to wire it for a case of beer or something.
 
480sparky

480sparky

Senior Member
Location
Iowegia
daleuger said:
Went back to the same house. All through the basement there are romexes "spliced and taped joints hanging outside the sheetrock and unfinished walls, a heater held in the wall with string and many loose random hot wires hanging out loose. It looks like they got some teenagers to wire it for a case of beer or something.
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THREAD-PIGS.jpg



Sorry.... I couldn't resist that. :grin:​
 
ptonsparky

ptonsparky

Tom
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
Made one of my very few 'cut off the power till fixed' a couple days ago. No fuses anywhere, open taps, open terminal boxes, etc. All within the reach of any child that strayed from the unfenced yard. Told the guys wife I can't leave it this way. She knew and so did he or they would not have finally called. They can afford it, he just likes to make things work until he can't anymore.
 
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