3 wire or 4 wire required

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JDB3

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San Antonio, Texas
Went to look over a site today. Lady asked me not to run away! I took a quick look & saw why she had made the request. :cry:
"Friend buddy etc." were going to help them. Took plug & switches out. Put panel in clothes closet (would not have had code clearances to begin with). Junction boxes in narrow gas furnace closet. And that was the good stuff.
The structure was a garage (800 square feet) turned into dwelling. It is feed from a 200 amp overhead service that feeds main breaker feed-through panel, with a 125 amp breaker by way of overhead triplex. This panel also feeds the main house through the feed-through lugs, overhead with triplex.
One occupant complained about lights dimming, devices operating at partial speed, etc.. They were using electric space heaters, hair dryer, curling iron, microwave, etc.
The triplex [possibly #4] (have not done a load calculation yet, total electric) appears to be to small for the 125 breaker.
Is it permissible to stay with the 3 wire feeder & install 2 5/8"x8' ground rods (instead of the 1/2"x ?) and meet code in any way?
I will try to take pictures of some of the items before any work is done. Would be good for the "What is wrong here" article in a trade magazine, except it would take up all the space listing articles.:(
 
All of the existing sets of wiring is 3 wire. Forgot to mention, that the feeder to the apartment use-to go through a customer owned meter socket. Some one (without the owner's permission) has by-passed the meter, so they want that re-done also.
 
JDB3 said:
All of the existing sets of wiring is 3 wire. Forgot to mention, that the feeder to the apartment use-to go through a customer owned meter socket. Some one (without the owner's permission) has by-passed the meter, so they want that re-done also.
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Just confirm that your state and city rental codes permit landlord owned sub metering. Some states do not. Unless the tenant bill comes direct from POCO the tenant must pay a flat rate for electric.
 
I might add that your flickering lights, low speed etc,etc is probably because of some failing connection point on that triplex. As these are pretty problematic on hob knobber jobs.
 
I might add that your flickering lights, low speed etc,etc is probably because of some failing connection point on that triplex. As these are pretty problematic on hob knobber jobs.
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There are about "5" places where the triplex was spliced using split bolt connections. :jawdrop:
 
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Just confirm that your state and city rental codes permit landlord owned sub metering. Some states do not. Unless the tenant bill comes direct from POCO the tenant must pay a flat rate for electric.
Click to expand...
Normally around here, as long as you just have the tenant pay the percentage of the bill (according to the amount that they use) the POCO is OK with it.
 
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