12AWG Wire Terminated to 600A Breakers

Usama

Member
Location
Florida
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
In doing a safety inspection for a building saw a #12AWG Wire terminated to 600A breakers. Any idea what some was thinking when tapping this here? Wasn't able to determine the downstream load, this is a main service disconnect fed from the utility. Also should note this is a large tower where this service disconnect exists every 3 floors and they all have this tap.

 
Possibly in the Utility Tx Room, however, I wasn't able to get access into this room. I tried looking for information on the breaker, to see if it had a shunt trip function, however given the age wasn't able to find anything fruitful. That said, it's an old FP 600A breaker.

Shunt trip makes the most sense as why they used wire nuts and tapped the feed rather than feeding directly into the terminals.
 
Your bigger problem is likely those little FPE breakers, the big breaker will function fine those FPE breakers might just be welded on.
 
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