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I am experiencing an electrical issue with my 200 amp 42 space Eaton panel. There seem to be 7 random "dead spaces" where no power is being supplied to the breaker resulting in dead circuits. I have eliminated bad breakers or faulty wiring. Replaced old breakers with known working breakers, still nothing. Swapped circuits (breakers stay in place, only swapping hot wire) and still no power from the dead space, but previously dead circuit now functional showing 124 volts connected to a different breaker in a different space.

These 7 "dead space" show between 6-7 volts when breaker is flipped on and nothing when breaker is off.

Did not detect any open grounds or neutrals.

I do not believe I have lost a leg as the "dead spaces" are random and not isolated to one side.

No physical damage observed to hot bus bar.

Anyone have any ideas? This ones got me stumped!

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    Which slots are dead? Also, is this a type BR or a type CH panel?
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Dec 20, 2016 at 19:50

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You should verify the voltage across the mains this sounds like a bad leg. every other breaker on each side is fed from 1 leg so it could look to be random. Example breaker 1, 5 & 9 all being fed from L1 then 2, 6 & 10 on the other side being fed from L1. It may look random at first but a bad leg is more probable than anything else based on your question.

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  • I had two legs come in from the power company and one died but the other was fine. Might be worth calling them just to make sure the mains are OK. We had to be on a dry cell transformer for a week until they re-ran the cable.
    – Machavity
    Dec 20, 2016 at 21:23
  • Yeah, there's really not much else that could be happening. The center bus bars are solid metal all the way down. They can't really fail without massive damage of some sort.
    – isherwood
    Dec 20, 2016 at 21:24
  • Thank you everyone for your responses! You guys are exactly right. I went back and recorded each dead space and noticed the 1,5,9 etc pattern! I've had some breakers missing as I'm reorganizing and adding to the panel so much harder to notice that Pattern! Looks like I'll be looking into the meter box and calling the power company, thanks everyone for the help
    – Dereck
    Dec 20, 2016 at 23:14

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