This is what you get when you hire lowes

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I went to a customers house to show her how to use her generator panel that she had had installed by a Lowes subcontractor.

She said she did not like how it looked and wanted me to make sure it was safe. Well I could tell right away this was gonna be a hack job when I saw the flex crammed in the top of the panel with no connector. The way he had this set up he was back feeding the fuse box with the generator with no way to prevent having the utility power and generator power on at the same time.

I told her what she had would not cut it and explained the problems with what she had. She just wants me to make it right. So she will be getting a new panel with a interlocking panel cover and a generator plug for her portable generator.

As you will see from the pics there are many things wrong with this panel. One being a while back she had a electrician come and replace her main disconnect and he did. The panel was fed with some old SEU so the ground was the neutral. When he changed the disconnect he ran a neutral over to the panel and isolated the grounds and neutrals. Well he pulled one Thhn for the neutral under the house and up through the bottom of the panel right through a ko no connector let alone the wire not being ran in pipe.

So I am going to re feed the new panel in pipe and THHN. Also at some point she had a dryer added well someone added a 2 space sub panel and fed it from the main lugs of the panel as you can see in the pics.

I went there to show here how to use her generator and ended up landing a pretty sweet job. I love panel change outs. On top of that she will have a much safer and neater set up.DSC_0296.jpgDSC_0297.jpgDSC_0298.jpgDSC_0299.jpgDSC_0300.jpgDSC_0305.jpgDSC_0306.jpg
 
She needs to get her money back from Lowes and report the electrician they sent out who did not get a permit (I assume)
 
Dennis Alwon said:
She needs to get her money back from Lowes and report the electrician they sent out who did not get a permit (I assume)
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I would file a formal complaint to the state. In NH they have forms that you can get from the internet, print them and mail it in to the fire marshalls office for a state inspector to investigate.
 
It's all on her I have no proof who did the work or when. She doesn't want to pursue it she just wants me to make it right and that is what I am going to do. I would love to hold who ever did this responsible but it is in her hands.
 
Strange she did not complain to Lowes. Yea How are they ever going to know that the EC did a poor job.
This guy if Lowes will do this over and over again.
 
You just have to feel real bad for the homeowner who certainy didn't have a clue as what they should expect. We can look at it and gag while the have to just trust the installers. And of course with no electrical permit.
But, it may have come to being "cheaper" with no licensed intaller nor permit. Who would think?
 
flytyingyaker said:
I went to a customers house to show her how to use her generator panel that she had had installed by a Lowes subcontractor.

She said she did not like how it looked and wanted me to make sure it was safe. Well I could tell right away this was gonna be a hack job when I saw the flex crammed in the top of the panel with no connector. The way he had this set up he was back feeding the fuse box with the generator with no way to prevent having the utility power and generator power on at the same time.

I told her what she had would not cut it and explained the problems with what she had. She just wants me to make it right. So she will be getting a new panel with a interlocking panel cover and a generator plug for her portable generator.

As you will see from the pics there are many things wrong with this panel. One being a while back she had a electrician come and replace her main disconnect and he did. The panel was fed with some old SEU so the ground was the neutral. When he changed the disconnect he ran a neutral over to the panel and isolated the grounds and neutrals. Well he pulled one Thhn for the neutral under the house and up through the bottom of the panel right through a ko no connector let alone the wire not being ran in pipe.

So I am going to re feed the new panel in pipe and THHN. Also at some point she had a dryer added well someone added a 2 space sub panel and fed it from the main lugs of the panel as you can see in the pics.

I went there to show here how to use her generator and ended up landing a pretty sweet job. I love panel change outs. On top of that she will have a much safer and neater set up.View attachment 7270View attachment 7271View attachment 7272View attachment 7273View attachment 7274View attachment 7275View attachment 7276
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Very interestng and nice photos.

I have no bias for or against Lowes, orange is more convenient for me, but I'm going to give them a positive plug

The reason is that Lowes annual advertising budget could be (I have no idea) WAG??? 25 million ?

Point is the statute of limitations or any fighting about it may not apply. Compared to Lowes annual advertising and promo budget, do you think Lowes will hiccup if you recommend to the homeowner she send your invoice to Lowes VP of customer satisfaction and fixing their work product.

Of course Lowes subbed the job out to a local *?* but Lowes corporate, I'm sure, will have to eat the cost because of the risk of bad press, pubic forum posting, and what they are willing to spend to buy themselves great press, publicity.

Before defaming Lowes (it was one of their subs) submit the invoice, photos, to Lowes corporate VP in charge of fixing their screwups. Give them the opportunity to buy themselves some great press.

Beat up on Lowes a bit directly and let them choose to stand by their work or to decline to answer the phone or email. I'm sure Lowes has the computer record of what was sold. Add to that your statement, you checked it and had to repair it to make it safe. Send Lowes their share of bill. They may want to pay it to score some good publicity, avoid bad publicity.
 
Here, Lowes and HD got in trouble because their contractors were charging for permits and then not getting them. So now they are in pulling permits for faucet change outs, we don't require one, but if they want to write us a check, who are we to say no?
 
Ive been looking at those pics closely.
It appears that the Transfer breaker leads are just tucked behind the buss?
All the branch breakers back-feed the Transfer panel?
The prongs on the twist-lock are live when the transfer switch is on.

The most dangerous generator install I have ever seen
 
cowboyjwc said:
Here, Lowes and HD got in trouble because their contractors were charging for permits and then not getting them. So now they are in pulling permits for faucet change outs, we don't require one, but if they want to write us a check, who are we to say no?
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Yeah, the contractor is responsible for pulling the permits if required, but the big box store is looked upon as being the general contractor, so that kinda puts them responsible if a permit is not pulled, even if they don't know it was done. It's called fraud if the contractor is charging for a permit, but not pulling one.
 
Sierrasparky said:
Ive been looking at those pics closely.
It appears that the Transfer breaker leads are just tucked behind the buss?
All the branch breakers back-feed the Transfer panel?
The prongs on the twist-lock are live when the transfer switch is on.

The most dangerous generator install I have ever seen
Click to expand...

They are using the two double pole breakers with the mechanical interlock to isolate the feeds, so the twist lock is not live.
 
hillbilly1 said:
Yeah, the contractor is responsible for pulling the permits if required, but the big box store is looked upon as being the general contractor, so that kinda puts them responsible if a permit is not pulled, even if they don't know it was done. It's called fraud if the contractor is charging for a permit, but not pulling one.
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Yeah especially when the job you did was for the county building official and when he went to check his file and make sure that the permit had been finaled........:happyyes:
 
__dan said:
Very interestng and nice photos.

I have no bias for or against Lowes, orange is more convenient for me, but I'm going to give them a positive plug

The reason is that Lowes annual advertising budget could be (I have no idea) WAG??? 25 million ?

Point is the statute of limitations or any fighting about it may not apply. Compared to Lowes annual advertising and promo budget, do you think Lowes will hiccup if you recommend to the homeowner she send your invoice to Lowes VP of customer satisfaction and fixing their work product.

Of course Lowes subbed the job out to a local *?* but Lowes corporate, I'm sure, will have to eat the cost because of the risk of bad press, pubic forum posting, and what they are willing to spend to buy themselves great press, publicity.

Before defaming Lowes (it was one of their subs) submit the invoice, photos, to Lowes corporate VP in charge of fixing their screwups. Give them the opportunity to buy themselves some great press.

Beat up on Lowes a bit directly and let them choose to stand by their work or to decline to answer the phone or email. I'm sure Lowes has the computer record of what was sold. Add to that your statement, you checked it and had to repair it to make it safe. Send Lowes their share of bill. They may want to pay it to score some good publicity, avoid bad publicity.
Click to expand...

I agree. I tend to believe this women she does not seem to have a reason to lie. I have recommended she go after lowes if in fact they did this. It is a horrible installation. But she has no interest in pursueing this. She just wants me to give her a new panel and a correct generator set up.
 
Sierrasparky said:
Ive been looking at those pics closely.
It appears that the Transfer breaker leads are just tucked behind the buss?
All the branch breakers back-feed the Transfer panel?
The prongs on the twist-lock are live when the transfer switch is on.

The most dangerous generator install I have ever seen
Click to expand...

You are slightly wrong. The breaker for utility power in the generator panel is dead they caped of those wires. There is no constant power to the generator panel. You must have the generator hooked up to back feed power to the existing fuses. No means to kill utility power simultaneously when turning the gen breaker on.
 
Looking closer at the picture, they did screw up majorly, instead of removing the wire from the fuse holder and tapping it together, they parralleled it with the fuses, so the overcurrent protection is the total of the breaker and the fuse combined. Whoever did this install definitely did not know what they were doing. Lowes needs to know about this immediately so they can go back and check all the installs of this contractor. Set up this way, she will backfeed the utility even though the utility breaker in the transferswitch is off.
 
Sierrasparky said:
Strange she did not complain to Lowes. Yea How are they ever going to know that the EC did a poor job.
This guy if Lowes will do this over and over again.
Click to expand...

Well, she'd have to have some idea of what to complain about. Most people, yours truly included, are reluctant to pipe up if they can't clearly articulate what they think the problem is. She may have felt uneasy about the job without knowing exactly why and didn't want to risk embarrasing herself possibly making a groundless complaint.
 
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