RustyShackleford
Senior Member
- Location
- NC
- Occupation
- electrical engineer
I'm working on a 35 year-old house here, and I've found the following issues. Posting mainly for sympathy 
here's what I've found (so far) ...
1. The panel is one of the questionable Federal Pacific ones.
2. The whole place appears to be wired with multi-wire branch circuits (MWBC), since the single-pole breakers alternate between red and black wires. Common practice back then, I suppose, but ... the breakers are all distinct - no handle ties.
3. I can't tell for sure how they wired the panel though, because the NM sheaths are removed before they enter the load center cabinet. All the conductors come in from the crawlspace through a 2" L-shaped PVC nipple, so I guess they removed the sheath so it would all fit. Can't even tell which neutrals go with which hots, or which hots are "together" to see if they're on opposite phases !
4. Trying to replace a ceiling luminaire, I found that I had to turn off two breakers to de-energize it. In other words, two circuits enter the luminaire and are tied together there; so the two circuits form a "ring". It's not clear if this luminaire is the place where the circuits were inappropriately joined, maybe there's another place where there are meant to be two circuits (perhaps a multi-gang switch box) and it's actually there that the mistake was made. However, I can find literally no other load of any kind that is driven by these circuits. It's like they brought two home-runs into this luminaire, tied 'em together and to the fixture, and that's it.
5. They tapped off a 3-way switch circuit to add an outlet - so the outlet is driven by a traveler and neutral. So if the switch in the other room is in the wrong position, then the outlet is dead. And ... wait for it ... the outlet is for the propane tankless water heater.
6. There is an upstairs luminaire controlled by two 3-way switches, which doesn't work right - BOTH switches must be in the correct position to turn it on. Diving into it, the upstairs switch is wired wrong - the common terminal is attached to one of the travelers, not to the load to the luminaire. Also, rather than running 3-wire between the two switches, they ran two 2-wires from the downstairs switch (which co-habitates a 2-gang box with a switch for a downstairs lumaire) to the downstairs luminaire; one is the neutral and load for the downstairs luminaire, and the other is the two travelers. There in the downstairs luminaire, they collect the neutral and the travelers into a 3-wire that goes to the upstairs switch. I guess this is ok - meeting the 300.3 exception since it's NM and all the boxes are non-metallic - but it's really peculiar.
7. An attic luminaire is controlled by a switch in a downstairs hallway; the attic in entered through a loft (so you have to go down a ladder to turn the light on and off).
8. A ceiling fan was hung from a non-fan rated box. And it has 3-wire NM going to it, so it's not like it wasn't intended to be for a fan.
9. A luminaire was connected by simply poking the wires into the attic and tying them to NM - not in a box, not using wire nuts, not using electrical tape - using masking tape.
10. An extension cord was repaired, and the three conductors were scrambled. Not just hot and neutral swapped either ...
I imagine #9 and #10 were done by a previous owner, but the other things seem like they were probably done by the OG (or original electrician). It's troubling.
here's what I've found (so far) ...1. The panel is one of the questionable Federal Pacific ones.
2. The whole place appears to be wired with multi-wire branch circuits (MWBC), since the single-pole breakers alternate between red and black wires. Common practice back then, I suppose, but ... the breakers are all distinct - no handle ties.
3. I can't tell for sure how they wired the panel though, because the NM sheaths are removed before they enter the load center cabinet. All the conductors come in from the crawlspace through a 2" L-shaped PVC nipple, so I guess they removed the sheath so it would all fit. Can't even tell which neutrals go with which hots, or which hots are "together" to see if they're on opposite phases !
4. Trying to replace a ceiling luminaire, I found that I had to turn off two breakers to de-energize it. In other words, two circuits enter the luminaire and are tied together there; so the two circuits form a "ring". It's not clear if this luminaire is the place where the circuits were inappropriately joined, maybe there's another place where there are meant to be two circuits (perhaps a multi-gang switch box) and it's actually there that the mistake was made. However, I can find literally no other load of any kind that is driven by these circuits. It's like they brought two home-runs into this luminaire, tied 'em together and to the fixture, and that's it.
5. They tapped off a 3-way switch circuit to add an outlet - so the outlet is driven by a traveler and neutral. So if the switch in the other room is in the wrong position, then the outlet is dead. And ... wait for it ... the outlet is for the propane tankless water heater.
6. There is an upstairs luminaire controlled by two 3-way switches, which doesn't work right - BOTH switches must be in the correct position to turn it on. Diving into it, the upstairs switch is wired wrong - the common terminal is attached to one of the travelers, not to the load to the luminaire. Also, rather than running 3-wire between the two switches, they ran two 2-wires from the downstairs switch (which co-habitates a 2-gang box with a switch for a downstairs lumaire) to the downstairs luminaire; one is the neutral and load for the downstairs luminaire, and the other is the two travelers. There in the downstairs luminaire, they collect the neutral and the travelers into a 3-wire that goes to the upstairs switch. I guess this is ok - meeting the 300.3 exception since it's NM and all the boxes are non-metallic - but it's really peculiar.
7. An attic luminaire is controlled by a switch in a downstairs hallway; the attic in entered through a loft (so you have to go down a ladder to turn the light on and off).
8. A ceiling fan was hung from a non-fan rated box. And it has 3-wire NM going to it, so it's not like it wasn't intended to be for a fan.
9. A luminaire was connected by simply poking the wires into the attic and tying them to NM - not in a box, not using wire nuts, not using electrical tape - using masking tape.
10. An extension cord was repaired, and the three conductors were scrambled. Not just hot and neutral swapped either ...
I imagine #9 and #10 were done by a previous owner, but the other things seem like they were probably done by the OG (or original electrician). It's troubling.
