Recurring main breaker MELTDOWN!!! any ideas???

[420Gator]

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[Underground]

That looks very concerning, do not re-use any of that. The wiring looks like someone jerry rigged it with some 105* C rated heat shrink. It's probably not tin but brittle alu conductor. That bus and panel have been heated beyond belief and you are probably pretty lucky that it was never a raging ball of fire. That breaker nowhere near qualifies as a main especially in that location. Especially if there was ever anything across from it.

 

[Underground]

Holy shit, that got so hot it actually toasted the insulation on those neutral conductors!! Your problem here is not limited to one factor that can easily be resolved. It is a culmination of several factors. You need to get a qualified electrician in there to take care of this before someone gets hurt.


Edit: Can you get a wider shot with the whole panel? I'm curious to see what this looks like as a whole.

 

[Papa]

oh my. this is why we have to be so careful and specific discussing electrical at the farm.

you had 8 lights and "tons of a/c" running off of this?

. . . just don't tell me that you were also sleeping here . . .




Papa

 

[420Gator]

when i wire my new panel up is there anyway i can leave this in place so i can take the new one if i leave? like if i put it on the inside of the garage right on the other side of the wall

 

[Underground]

Tell your landlord to pay for it, that is complete garbage. That just looks nasty. And the close ups look dangerous.

 

[UCtestn]

when i wire my new panel up is there anyway i can leave this in place so i can take the new one if i leave? like if i put it on the inside of the garage right on the other side of the wall

I just went through something similar. Paid and electrician to put in a new main panel. It looks like you have a 100 AMP drop from the Electric Company.

Ended up dropping a fresh circuit and running a 100 AMP sub to the existing panel. I felt comfortable running the house off of it, but not the grow.

Good luck and be safe. Don't cut corners on this stuff.

 

[420Gator]

yea ive had a seperate sub panel wired into the house, not tryna cut corners just didnt know how shitty this panel was

 

[Buddy Hemphill]

If you're gonna spend the cheese anyway.....

I told a landlord I needed to hire an electrician to "hook up a plug for my welder"....

he just so happened to find that a 200 amp service was needed.:)

I took a 25 dollar permit from the courthouse to her for her to sign and I forget what it cost me for the actual panel/labor (didn't really give a shit because an extra 100A's is gold. The power company had to ok the service and it took a few weeks....but all-in-all....it prolly cost a coupla extra hundred and a few extra weeks.

Thats cheap for what I did with the extra 100A.:harvest: I was able to "weld, weld, weld" my little heart out.....


FWIW....IMHO, put new stuff in and dont try to patch that up with sandpaper or anything else....regardless if you upgrade or not.

And even if your service wire wont hold 200A...they will prolly let you upgrade to a 125A unless the service wire is really just too small.



Question for the electrical guys. That breaker is burnt on the load side pretty bad... along with the wire.
That seems like a load side problem. Would a line side problem burn the wire on the load side of the breaker?

edit: I guess if it got hot enough to do that to the breaker it woud be smokng the wire AT the breaker also...I think I understand. I've encountered a few problems but never a line side issue like a buss.

 

[Underground]

If you're gonna spend the cheese anyway.....

I told a landlord I needed to hire an electrician to "hook up a plug for my welder"....

he just so happened to find that a 200 amp service was needed.:)

I took a 25 dollar permit from the courthouse to her for her to sign and I forget what it cost me for the actual panel/labor (didn't really give a shit because an extra 100A's is gold. The power company had to ok the service and it took a few weeks....but all-in-all....it prolly cost a coupla extra hundred and a few extra weeks.

Thats cheap for what I did with the extra 100A.:harvest: I was able to "weld, weld, weld" my little heart out.....


FWIW....IMHO, put new stuff in and dont try to patch that up with sandpaper or anything else....regardless if you upgrade or not.

And even if your service wire wont hold 200A...they will prolly let you upgrade to a 125A unless the service wire is really just too small.



Question for the electrical guys. That breaker is burnt on the load side pretty bad... along with the wire.
That seems like a load side problem. Would a line side problem burn the wire on the load side of the breaker?

edit: I guess if it got hot enough to do that to the breaker it woud be smokng the wire AT the breaker also...I think I understand. I've encountered a few problems but never a line side issue like a buss.

The problem here was the connection itself. The heat from the poor connection causes damage which then multiplies the problem. The surface becomes pitted changing the mated surface area and lowering the ampacity of the connection, the properties of the metals change no longer allowing a solid connection, all these things add up and get progressively worse. The heat is convected to other parts of the circuit, damaging the wiring closest to the source.

Around this area, I usually do a 100amp to 200amp upgrade for $1500-$2200 depending on the amount of breakers and degree of difficulty. Of course, I'm not just changing out a panel. That also includes installing a new meter socket, service entrance cable, and two new ground rods, and the riser where required.

 

[420Gator]

Around this area, I usually do a 100amp to 200amp upgrade for $1500-$2200 depending on the amount of breakers and degree of difficulty. Of course, I'm not just changing out a panel. That also includes installing a new meter socket, service entrance cable, and two new ground rods, and the riser where required.

that includes all hardware?

 

[420Gator]

no offense to everyone from this fine state but ive never seen so many cheaply built homes. i was in the military and been allover, some of the places here could be straight out another country.

oh well have no one to blame but myself. I thought id be ok aslong as it wasnt a zensko

 

[Underground]

that includes all hardware?

Yup, soup to nuts.

 

[420Gator]

and what if the customer had everything. whatd be the cost on labor?

 

[Dr.stickerdick]

To all you out there on the farm. Don't use sand paper on the buss, use Scotch Brite or simalar material because sand paper is too agressive on the metal and can take too much sufface off the thus causing looser surface mating then heating. I'm an electrician too and get $600.00 for average pannel change-out but in Callifornia my fellow IBEW brothers get $900.00 to $1500.00 labor, as a side job. Try to find one of these that are cool. I agree with Underground, he nailed the problem and solution. I would go with a Square "D" Q-O pannel, the buss is solid copper the best on the market do not buy one with alluminum buss. The custumer never has had Everything when they say they do but that is an axium to us sparkies. Peace

 

[420Gator]

been talking to the guy who wired up my sub when i first moved in, he says i probly fucked up the buss over the summer when i had 8k+A/C

not that i dont believe him just still dont get why these breakers never tripped

i thought id only be running 4 lights for awhile and 2 months in i just had to start another room. didnt know how easy it is to get ahead of yourself in this game

 

[Underground]

It rarely pays to buy the material yourself. If you buy the material, the electrician will not warranty it. Plus it may even be cheaper. A customer's designer wanted to sell him a vent fan and he asked me to price it. With my profit margin of 20% (multiply by 1.25) I was at around $205. Retail was $315, and she wanted to charge him $330.

I've never done just labor, but I usually just figure 8-10 hours depending on what I saw plus the material. I cross my fingers and hope to be done sooner, and usually am but have also needed more time to. And you can't charge a customer for that if you quoted them.

 

[420Gator]

ok my electrician just checked this out, like everyone here he recommends a full upgrade/conversion to 200a 220v but i dont have the $ right now so he said he can replace all the busses and id be ok with 4 till i can upgrade OR he can wire me in before the meter.

if anyone has any experience or input on wether or not id be cool runnung 4-6k like this till march PLEASE PM ME

 

[Underground]

I really hope you misunderstood and he did not say that. That's just asking for you to get busted. Before the meter means bypassing it, so you won't have to pay for the power. That's a good way for him to bring both of you down.

 

[Nobodynobody]

Underground passes me up on ton of info on me. Props my man! I use to be just an ex electrician asst. Just knew the basic 101. Witch thats all we need some times.

I saw that picture and tell the landlord that it his place and he needs to fix it. I personally will not spend money on a place then leave it behind. Sorry it has to go with me...

Do you have any idea on how to make the power bill less with out Stealing? like to know if you got some tricks to mod to a place.

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