See Anything I Don't?? (California)

[busman]

All,

My brother who lives in CA sent me these photos of the electrical on a house he's thinking of making an offer on. As I live 3,000 miles away and don't know anything about how they do things on the left-coast, I'm wondering if you all see anything (good or bad), that I haven't listed below:

1) House is said to be 1965 construction, but the switch on the left appears to be earlier than that. I've only seen these switches with the screw facing forward in buildings of 1930's vintage. Also, looks like plaster walls with EMT wiring method.

2) Looks like a 600A GE CT metered service with a disconnect switch and 6 CB's feeding panels and heaters. No obvious concern other than the slight corrosion on the deadfront. Wouldn't mind seeing the inside and maybe giving it a thermal scan.

3) This one has me puzzled. Looks like an old panel that was stripped of the guts and used as a JB. It looks like maybe MC cable, but I don't see any wire nuts. Interesting to see the wires braided. Also wee what looks like a couple of 4/0 AL conductors hanging free. Thoughts on this one.

4) A GE subpanel with all conduit wiring methods. Didn't see any cause for concern here, but again, wouldn't mind seeing the inside. Only other thing is seeing some 2" white PVC to the left of the frame. That should be rerouted and shouldn't be a big deal since this is unfinished space below the house.

I would greatly appreciate any other opinions, especially from those who know CA wiring.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

 

[mgookin]

600A 3 phase on a house?
Was this "house" maybe built by a newspaper publisher? (just kidding)

S2 in the first pic looks like a dimmer.

I am not qualified to comment on the rest of your questions, but thanks for posting interesting pics. My Cali experience is limited to Half Dome, the redwoods, silicon valley meeting with contract manufacturers, and a ride through Googleville (if you get the chance, take the side trip).

 

[busman]

600A 3 phase on a house?
Was this "house" maybe built by a newspaper publisher? (just kidding)

S2 in the first pic looks like a dimmer.

I am not qualified to comment on the rest of your questions, but thanks for posting interesting pics. My Cali experience is limited to Half Dome, the redwoods, silicon valley meeting with contract manufacturers, and a ride through Googleville (if you get the chance, take the side trip).

Thanks for the reply. It's 600A single phase 120/240V. West of LA. All electric home (no fuel gas).

I have one house I serve here in Virginia with a 1,000A service; about 14,000 SF.

Mark

 

[mgookin]

Thanks for the reply. It's 600A single phase 120/240V. West of LA. All electric home (no fuel gas).

I have one house I serve here in Virginia with a 1,000A service; about 14,000 SF.

Mark

1phase 3wire

I read it wrong.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

No 3 looks like an old panel but there are some anomalies there. There seems to be a neutral/ground terminal at the top center-- almost at the top -- that has a cover and then there is that box in the top right hand corner. Many of the wires seem to have a butt splice with tape around them.

 

[kwired]

Wouldn't west of LA make it a floating home?

How big is it/how much heat is there?

I did a rather large home with electric heat and though it had 4-200 amp mains, if one were to run a single main disconnect it probably would have been fine on 400 amps, and heating demand is probably much greater here then west of LA is.

 

[busman]

Wouldn't west of LA make it a floating home?

How big is it/how much heat is there?

I did a rather large home with electric heat and though it had 4-200 amp mains, if one were to run a single main disconnect it probably would have been fine on 400 amps, and heating demand is probably much greater here then west of LA is.

Sorry, west of downtown. The Oxnard area.

Mark

 

[mwm1752]

1# looks like a 5 position switch that controls a swamp cooler

 

[Fulthrotl]

Sorry, west of downtown. The Oxnard area.

Mark

different areas of so calif sometimes might seem like different countries.

newport beach, in the 60's, still used GRC in residential. sometimes. depended
on the inspector, and the neighborhood......
huntington beach, same time period, 2 wire romex.

that time period was the "gold medallion" thing here... all electric homes.
so cal edison was aggressively promoting electricity, to the extent of paying
developers NOT to pipe natural gas into developments. so calif gas filed an
antitrust lawsuit which so cal edison lost, and had to pay to put in gas
after the fact. my parents at the time, had a house in rossmoor, that had
an electric pool heater....

:jawdrop:

the first months bill for heating the pool was larger than the mortgage at the
time. there was no second months pool heat bill..... :roll:

maybe someone on here has experience from the oxnard area in that time
frame, and can chime in.

 

[mgookin]

different areas of so calif sometimes might seem like different countries.

newport beach, in the 60's, still used GRC in residential. sometimes. depended
on the inspector, and the neighborhood......
huntington beach, same time period, 2 wire romex.

that time period was the "gold medallion" thing here... all electric homes.
so cal edison was aggressively promoting electricity, to the extent of paying
developers NOT to pipe natural gas into developments. so calif gas filed an
antitrust lawsuit which so cal edison lost, and had to pay to put in gas
after the fact. my parents at the time, had a house in rossmoor, that had
an electric pool heater....

:jawdrop:

the first months bill for heating the pool was larger than the mortgage at the
time. there was no second months pool heat bill..... :roll:

maybe someone on here has experience from the oxnard area in that time
frame, and can chime in.

There are some (not many) homes around here with electric heat pumps on pools. They heat the water in the winter and cool it in the summer. And it feels really nice.