unkown brand of panel

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JDB3

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San Antonio, Texas
Looking at a job where they want to condition the air in warehouse type area (was a hydraulics plant of some sort).
CT service that goes to trough with over a dozen disconnects feeding various panels. Panels are such that there is no name plate/labeling on them. They have Simens, Westinghouse, Square D "Homeline", GE, and other breakers mixed in the panels. :jawdrop:
What would you do about selecting the brand of breakers to put in these panels? :?
I have not yet contacted the local authority about this.
 
There has got to be some labeling some where in the panel. Of course we all know they can be interchangeable. But that's not always code compliant.
 
We used to have a specialty electrical cabinet/breaker panel manufacturer next town over called Park Electric. They specialized in manufacturing plant electrical panels built to suit.
Not sure what all breakers fit there panels not even sure if they had UL listing but I think they did.
Maybe your dealing with the same kind of thing?
 
norcal said:
A photo may help, some people may recognize it.
Click to expand...

This.

Otherwise I would probably use Eaton BR breakers because they are listed to go in other brands of panels and are most likely to be the correct one.

My presence of Westinghouse breakers points to that likely being the brand, because that brand is obsolete. In other words, someone recently working in the panel would not have been able to get new Westinghouse breakers, and if they didn't know that Eaton BR is the proper replacement then they could have obtained the Homeline or GEs instead. It's not definitive, because someone could have recycled Westinghouse in there, but it's most likely.

Which brand has the most breakers and which look like they've been there the longest (judging from the wires connected to them)?
 
UL listed classified breaker

UL listed classified breaker

I know eaton makes a breaker called CL breaker,don't get it mixup with the BR the CL is a classified breaker and is UL listed and can be a replacement breaker for many other breakers including SQ D, and SQ D is very strict on only use our breakers are you void the warranty if anything should happen,there panels are UL listed and there breakers and if I install them according to there UL listing then I'm fine,if I install a CL eaton breaker according to there UL listing inside of a sq d panel then I'm ok I would think. If you goggle eaton classified breaker it will have list of breakers it can replace, you can also print out the list of comparable breakers,I think its a bunch of hog wash that these company's say you have to use our replacement parts cause if you don't and anything should go wrong your on your own,new construction I always use the same panel and breakers,I have even used a BR breaker in a sq d panel and showed the Inspecter the print out of the classified breaker they look the same,at that time that's all I had not every parts house has them
 
You don't need the classified breakers for Westinghouse, Bryant, Challenger, or Cutler-Hammer BR type. The BR is the proper type for those and always has been, it will actually say 'BR' on them if the label is still there, except for Challenger it will say 'type C'.

(And not to be confusing, but there's a Cutler-Hammer CH type that is different.)
 
No you don't need a CL breaker all you need is the name of the panel, he does not know the name of panel put a BR ,home line ,GE ,and your only covering that type of brand put a CL breaker and you are covering a larger scale of panel boards.A BR breaker only covers eaton and whoever they bought out BTW eaton is the only one that uses the BR
 
The BR was originally Bryant, division of Westinghouse, in addition to Bryant, it's been Westinghouse, Cutler-Hammer, & now Eaton.
 
Sorry, forgot to mention that these are 3 phase panels & the equipment to be connected will be 3 phase (so that rules out the Square D Homeline, and perhaps others.
 
The fact that it's a CT service adds all kinds of questions. If it's really a service from the utility, I would think that they might have some input as to whether things need to be upgraded or not. I suppose it's easier to just keep them out of the loop, but doing any work would require a shutdown of the service at the source, since pulling the meter does nothing but fry the CT's. If there's a breaker ahead of the CT's, that may no longer be acceptable. I agree....pics would help. Are the 3 ph breakers plug-in, bolted to a bus, or hardwired? Is there one main service disconnect, six or less? It all make a difference. Security!!! Are they going to shoot you for asking us questions?:eek:
 
meternerd said:
The fact that it's a CT service adds all kinds of questions. If it's really a service from the utility, I would think that they might have some input as to whether things need to be upgraded or not. I suppose it's easier to just keep them out of the loop, but doing any work would require a shutdown of the service at the source, since pulling the meter does nothing but fry the CT's. If there's a breaker ahead of the CT's, that may no longer be acceptable. I agree....pics would help. Are the 3 ph breakers plug-in, bolted to a bus, or hardwired? Is there one main service disconnect, six or less? It all make a difference. Security!!! Are they going to shoot you for asking us questions?:eek:
Click to expand...

The people & maintenance person do not know electrical at all.
Yes there is a disconnect before all of these 18 disconnects.
 
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