Am I in trouble?

R

Rudy2153

Member
Location
California
Occupation
Journeyman Residential Electrician and Project Engineer.
The company I work for was hired to swap out the Zinsco Sub panels in a 150 or so condos recently. The work is now complete and even though the panels have a bond wire from the uffer of the building, the sub feed does not have a ground in the cable set (1\3 SER aluminum). The existing uffer to each panel is a 10 gauge solid bare copper and the sub feeds are on 100 amp breakers. Should I have run a new #8 ground to the mains for each sub panel? The existing mains will be changed in the future.
 
1/3 SER is typically (3) #1 insulated conductors and (1) #4 bare conductor. Is the 3rd wire in your cable bare? If so that is SEU cable.

A separate ground wire from the service disconnect to the load center is not permitted. It needs to be in the same cable or raceway. If there are only 3 conductors in the existing cables they need to be replaced with a cable that has 4 conductors.
 
I'm not following completely. The "ufer" should go to the main disconnect, and be sized accordingly. Not to each subpanel. The 1/3 SER has 2 ungrounded conductors, a grounded conductor, and a grounding conductor, assuming these are single phase panels. A little more info is needed, or I'm just missing something.
 
As Curt said, you probably have SEU, not SER. Do you have 3 wires (including the braided) or 4 wires (including the braided) ? The uffer does not go to the panel, it goes to the service disconnect.
 
I helped a former coworker change a service in a duplex once. He didn't want to work hot at the weather head which is why i was there LOL

This was years ago. 2 gang meter socket with two service cables into the one basement. One went into a panel within a few feet (standard install) with 2/0 SEU. The other 2/0SEU went into a 100 amp fused disconnect. He had run 2/0 SEU from there to the panel in the other basement. I said "you have to change that to 3 wire SEU its a feeder". He left it as is and it passed inspection. He told me he did it that way because the old panel was wired that way.
 
Really... Probably not in any trouble. Jobs like these I have been involved with, the AHJ will let an existing install like that slide because it's still better than the Zinsco panels. That's assuming there was an AHJ involved at all.
 
JohnE said:
I'm not following completely. The "ufer" should go to the main disconnect, and be sized accordingly. Not to each subpanel. The 1/3 SER has 2 ungrounded conductors, a grounded conductor, and a grounding conductor, assuming these are single phase panels. A little more info is needed, or I'm just missing something.
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The building was built in the 50's and has sub feeds with only 3 conductors. The ground was brought to the subs via bare copper in the walls from the uffer at the main.
 
hillbilly1 said:
hillbilly1 said:
As Curt said, you probably have SEU, not SER. Do you have 3 wires (including the braided) or 4 wires (including the braided) ? The uffer does not go to the panel, it goes to the service disconnect.
Click to expand...


Reply
Click to expand...
The building was built in the 50's and has sub feeds with only 3 conductors. The ground was brought to the subs via bare copper in the walls from the uffer at the main.
 
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