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Harper - Reinstate Monica
  • 309.9k
  • 27
  • 294
  • 761

Additional violations:

The breakers are double-tapped, yet they are the older HOM breakers that are not listed for 2 wires per tap.

If you can downgrade the 240V circuit to 15A or 20A receptacles (NEMA 6), you'd have a "Multi-wire branch circuit" with mixed 120V and 240V loads. That would be fine with a 20A 2-pole breaker at that point, and the newersmaller HOM breakers accept 2 wires, so that would legitimize the breaker double-tap.

There's no ground bar. There's 1 lug which appears to be part of the neutral bar, and that is doublequad-tapped for 4 ground wires, (twisting 3 togetherwhich doesn't even work. #1 dissimilar wire sizes isn't right either)going to work, #2 the general idea of twisting a bunch of grounds together to imitate a stranded wire doesn't work, and #3 that lug doesn't allow multiple wires. Get Get a proper ground bar. That will separate neutrals and grounds.

Or alternately, since there are only 3 neutrals I would just wire-nut all the neutrals together, install a neutral-ground bond and use the bar for grounds.

As Ed Beal often points out, a 3-wire connection was allowed prior to NEC 1999, but this is a 4-wire connection. That concession was to reduce wire cost and avoid wasting the remaining supply of /3 no-ground cable. For instance it was always illegal to use /2+ground cable as your 3 wires.

Regardless, this work is not "grandfathered" into pre-1999 Code for two reasons. Work that violated Code at the time is not grandfathered. And to defend grandfathering, you need documentation of when it was done - i.e. permits. No permit was pulled here.

This panel is like safety theater. All the cost of doing it right, but no safer than gobbing all the wires together with wire nuts under an old soup can.

Additional violations:

The breakers are double-tapped, yet they are the older HOM breakers that are not listed for 2 wires per tap.

If you can downgrade the 240V circuit to 15A or 20A receptacles, you'd have a "Multi-wire branch circuit" with mixed 120V and 240V loads. That would be fine with a 20A 2-pole breaker at that point, and the newer HOM breakers accept 2 wires.

There's no ground bar. There's 1 lug which appears to be part of the neutral bar, and that is double-tapped for 4 ground wires (twisting 3 together isn't right either). Get a proper ground bar. That will separate neutrals and grounds.

Additional violations:

The breakers are double-tapped, yet they are the older HOM breakers that are not listed for 2 wires per tap.

If you can downgrade the 240V circuit to 15A or 20A receptacles (NEMA 6), you'd have a "Multi-wire branch circuit" with mixed 120V and 240V loads. That would be fine with a 20A 2-pole breaker at that point, and the smaller HOM breakers accept 2 wires, so that would legitimize the breaker double-tap.

There's no ground bar. There's 1 lug which appears to be part of the neutral bar, and that is quad-tapped for 4 ground wires, which doesn't even work. #1 dissimilar wire sizes isn't going to work, #2 the general idea of twisting a bunch of grounds together to imitate a stranded wire doesn't work, and #3 that lug doesn't allow multiple wires. Get a proper ground bar. That will separate neutrals and grounds.

Or alternately, since there are only 3 neutrals I would just wire-nut all the neutrals together, install a neutral-ground bond and use the bar for grounds.

As Ed Beal often points out, a 3-wire connection was allowed prior to NEC 1999, but this is a 4-wire connection. That concession was to reduce wire cost and avoid wasting the remaining supply of /3 no-ground cable. For instance it was always illegal to use /2+ground cable as your 3 wires.

Regardless, this work is not "grandfathered" into pre-1999 Code for two reasons. Work that violated Code at the time is not grandfathered. And to defend grandfathering, you need documentation of when it was done - i.e. permits. No permit was pulled here.

This panel is like safety theater. All the cost of doing it right, but no safer than gobbing all the wires together with wire nuts under an old soup can.

Source Link
Harper - Reinstate Monica
  • 309.9k
  • 27
  • 294
  • 761

Additional violations:

The breakers are double-tapped, yet they are the older HOM breakers that are not listed for 2 wires per tap.

If you can downgrade the 240V circuit to 15A or 20A receptacles, you'd have a "Multi-wire branch circuit" with mixed 120V and 240V loads. That would be fine with a 20A 2-pole breaker at that point, and the newer HOM breakers accept 2 wires.

There's no ground bar. There's 1 lug which appears to be part of the neutral bar, and that is double-tapped for 4 ground wires (twisting 3 together isn't right either). Get a proper ground bar. That will separate neutrals and grounds.