Yikes!

[hillbilly]

Had a small "suprise" yesterday.
Adding a breaker to a Murry panel. As I went to place the cover back on, (you know, you hang the top over some pins and one screw holds the bottom of the cover in place), I placed the top in position...Pow!...short circuit. Since I was still holding the cover, so I pulled it back off to try to determine what happened. I looked at each breaker, and sure enough one (15A) was tripped. I followed the circuit up to a doorbell transformer sitting on the top of the panel. I looked and then looked again. The green grounding wire and the black (hot) conductor for the transformer were connected (together) to a pigtail that went to the breaker.
The transformer was sitting there with it's metal case at 120V potential.
It apparently was sitting on it's plastic mounting nipple and not making contact with the bonded enclosure until I bumped it with the cover.
I corrected the connection and said thanks because I had on a pair of good boots.
I asked the owner if anyone had installed a new doorbell transformer and she said "yes, I had the painter install it when he was here, he's a good friend and did it for me".
I told her that her "good friend's" stupid mistake could have gotten someone killed.
That tranformer was like a coiled snake ready to strike the first person who got too close.
I know that I should have killed the main before I opened it up, but I (like a lot of you) sometimes work hot if I'm in a hurry.
Luckily...all is well.
If I see that painter.....#$@%^&^%.
steve

 

[allenwayne]

I learned along time ago to take a carefull look around a panel after adding to it doing any type of work in one.Especially on an energized panel.So you learned something good from a bad thing, look brfore you leap.

 

[busman]

I had a call from a lady who said her microwave "popped". I asked her to define the term popped. She said it just went pop, as well as the coffee maker and the vacuum. Turns out she let the painter add a receptacle for the wall phone. He screwed up in the JB (MWBC) and got 240 to the new receptacle. She learned her lesson the hard way. The funny thing is that the painter exploded the vacuum. He used her vacuum to clean up after himself.

She wanted to know what she could do to this guy. I said nothing. He has no license to work against. Buyer beware.

Mark

 

[hillbilly]

Did some more work on the same house last week. In the (not too recent) past, someone had reworked the kitchen receptacle circuit. The owner wanted another receptacle added to this circuit, so I investigated the possibility. When I opened up the first receptacle, I couldn't believe my eyes. The person, (I won't say electrician) who had wired this circuit had made the biggest idiot that I know look smart.
The cable was #12 copper NM. The old cloth covered kind with the small (#16?) grounding conductor.
He had placed both the white and black wire on the same (20A) breaker, and used the small bare conductor for the grounded (neutral). At the receptacles he had attached both the black and white wires to the "hot" side of the receptacle and used the bare grounding conductor for the (grounded) neutral conductor.
Apparently with no free conductors left over, he just skipped the grounding connection on the receptacle (sarcasm). This was on a kitchen counter circuit that also included the refridgerator, microwave oven, and toaster.
I informed the owner how dangerous the installation was and he readily agreed to a repair.
I'm going back tomorrow to look for any other suprises in this house.
It's odd, I've already looked at few other circuits and they were wired correctly. Maybe the only "work" this person performed was in the kitchen.
steve