Neutral issues

[macmikeman]

Another fine example of what happens when the lowest bid is the winning bid. Corners get cut. That there is the problem at the heart of it.

[tom baker]

Thank you for taking the time to post this. If you can post pictures I will send them to Mike Holt with an explaination.

[don_resqcapt19]

Originally Posted by jwnagy

In this home the grounding path was through WHATEVER path to ground was availiable, depending on the resistance of the branch circuits involved. It was amazing to see this in practical application as I turned breakers on and off and watched my Fluke Meter readings.

If you even suspect a open neutral problem, it really isn't a good idea to be turning breakers off and on and watch the voltage changes. You may be increasing the damage to the equipment that will be seeing high and low voltages.

[JayP]

Originally Posted by don_resqcapt19

If you even suspect a open neutral problem, it really isn't a good idea to be turning breakers off and on and watch the voltage changes. You may be increasing the damage to the equipment that will be seeing high and low voltages.

good point

[jwnagy]

I agree. That's why a few days earlier I had instructed the homeowners to unplug ALL of thier 120 volt devices. I also unplugged the range.

The homeowner also unplugged the dryer, which as I noted earlier, just exacerbated things.

[jwnagy]

These are some photos I shot with my camera/phone.

You can see the that there were originaly 4 wires, all together, feeding the sub-panel. Two were abandoned (A/B phase) and you can see those in the ground, cut off. The other two wires left (Neutral and Ground) were left in place. Two new phase wires were installed, running in a completely different direction (around the house) making them about 40 feet longer than the neutral and ground wires.....and even that was bootlegged! When they installed the conductors they apparently damaged the insulation on one of the new condcutors and just wrapped it in electrical tape and threw it in the ground.


Shoddy all the way around.

[wawireguy]

If I were you I'd counsel the homeowners to see if there is a paper trail at the inspectors office of who might have done this work. If a permit was pulled for re-feading the service the owners would seem to have a good case taking the contractor to court. Also they might be able to check with the prior owners. See if they had the work done and by whom. There might be a copy of the check used to pay the contractor that could be used against them. I hate hacks with a passion.

[jwnagy]

Another concern to me, if you look at the photo that shows the conductors close-up.....there's another unit that apparently had some feeder damage as well, and the same kind of work was done to correct the problem, except its just one conductor.

[benaround]

That service looks like 3-3" conduits, is it a single phase 1200a ? Anyway, it looks like you

will be busy for a little while here. I'm not a violent person, but, I'd like to find the hacks

that did this and cut their fingers off with my dikes, gently of course.

[ptonsparky]

Originally Posted by Pierre C Belarge

Reading these random stories from time to time here makes me wonder. I wonder how many of these stories actually exist???

I agree with Brian. So many I just give up. A guy gets thicker skin after a while and only the very worst stick out. Truly amazed there are not more fires & deaths.