Industrial Site Stuff

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tonype

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
By now, I guess that most of you know that my business is pre-purchase building inspections. On Friday, I was at an industrial site an saw some stuff that I need some education on:

1. Ground mounted transformers in a pool of rain water (this was right after a major thunderstom blew through in Northern NJ (see photo). Comments?
2. An older (anyone know an age) panel board that contains all kinds of exposed copper components once the door is opened. Comments?

Regards,
Tony Shupenko

PS: Sorry for the small size of the photos - I had to reduce them to make the file small enough to attach here.
 
The transformer set may be utility owned therefore it's does not require compliance with the NEC. Years ago I had seen many panels like the one you posted with open bus bars in buildings in NYC. Some switchgear rooms had entire switchboards of open bus with huge 400 amp knife switches. The front of the switchboard was knife switches and the open back was an array of bus details connecting the entire thing together. I'd guess that the things were at least 50 years old.
 
Celtic:

Here is a little larger photo - thanks to the referral to Image Shack (though this photo was re-sized at Photobucket).

Regards,
Tony
 
infinity said:
The transformer set may be utility owned therefore it's does not require compliance with the NEC. Years ago I had seen many panels like the one you posted with open bus bars in buildings in NYC. Some switchgear rooms had entire switchboards of open bus with huge 400 amp knife switches. The front of the switchboard was knife switches and the open back was an array of bus details connecting the entire thing together. I'd guess that the things were at least 50 years old.
Click to expand...


Trevor:

Even though this may be a pre-existing condition, is this type of panel considered hazardous (the panel is within a tenant space, without any locking provision and can be readily opened)?

Regarding the transformers, the better photos I attached shows the bottoms in several inches of water. Even if this is not an NEC regulated item, do you know of any adverse conditions that can result for immersion in water?

Tony
 
I've seen them "mounted" on the ground - and wired a few that way, also.

Not pretty, but as long as they meet the requirements of 110.31 (et al), they seem to be compliant.

The open buss was common years ago.
 
tonype said:
Trevor:

Even though this may be a pre-existing condition, is this type of panel considered hazardous (the panel is within a tenant space, without any locking provision and can be readily opened)?

Regarding the transformers, the better photos I attached shows the bottoms in several inches of water. Even if this is not an NEC regulated item, do you know of any adverse conditions that can result for immersion in water?

Tony
Click to expand...


Any electrical cabinet with open bus is hazardous. The fact that someone can open the door is not really an NEC issue. However if I was the building insurance company I may have a problem with it since curious George could stick his head in there and get injured or worse.
 
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