Replacing bus bars in panelboards.

[Geon_W]

Shouldn't replacing the bus bar in a panelboard be the first option instead of replacing the entire panelboard? Why do PEs have problem with this?

 

[nakulak]

I would imagine that the answer would have to do with the circumstances under which the busbar was bad, how old the equipment was, the availability of parts, how certain the cause of the damage was, how certain the known extent of the damage was, how certain that the other parts were not damaged, etc etc, and one final item - how far whoever is concerned wants to stick their neck out (the person who decides that its ok to replace x, y and z and everything will be hunky dory could be held liable if say, the place burned down 6 mos later and someone got killed in the fire)

 

[Geon_W]

there is nothing wrong with the panelboard, just a need to increase capacity.

 

[brian john]

Labor cost alone makes this impractical, much less the fact that the average electrician might miss an insulator and damage the panel. I see no logic in this unless their is an issue with the back box size maybe.

Or are you talking about replacing the guts as one intact unit?

 

[weressl]

there is nothing wrong with the panelboard, just a need to increase capacity.

You would void the UL listing of the panel.

You can't just replace the bus, you would have to replace the entire 'guts' of the panel IF the existing backbox size is adequate for the new guts, eg. the size is the same what the manufacturer lists as the requirement. You would avoid of needing to make the connections to the new box and potentiall re-use the existing breakers IF they are listed to be used with the new guts.