FullySprinklered
In the Trades
A customer called with a problem with his lights and some of his outlets not working. His floor people were starting to install the flooring and the lights were out in the den and foyer where they were to be working. There was a lot of stuff not working as I checked around, so I went to the panel in the garage. The cover was off because one of the workers wanted to try something, but was unable to get very far. I checked the service cables with my beeper stick and found that one of them was dead. I checked out in the disconnect and determined that it was a power company thing, and updated the customer so that he could contact them for service.
The panel was put together in an unusual way in that there were six double poles at the top and sixteen space savers at the bottom of the GE panel. There were two full-size singles just above the SS breakers, with a no-man's land of 8-10 unused slots between the single poles and the doubles. The knock-outs were in place. Must have had a sale on the little ones.
Just to get the most critical issue resolved, I got out my bucket o breakers and installed six full size singles in every other slot in the no-man's land and moved wires from the dead circuits to the temporary breakers and got the lights, the fridge, and the master bedroom illuminated, plus a good many outlets. After the power company got their part done, I went back and put everything back and removed the temporary breakers.
That is the background information. While working in the panel I noticed a white wire tied into one of the full size single-pole breakers. I removed it and alerted the customer to it. On the return trip, the customer told me that the dishwasher had stopped functioning. I checked the labels and the d/w breaker was the one that had had the white wire on it. I went in the kitchen and pulled the kickplate off the dishwasher and went into the junction box. The house white wire was attached to the d/w black wire and the house ground was attached to the d/w white wire. The black house wire was simply clipped off and sitting there, just like in the panel. So, the black wire got damaged somewhere and the electrician moved the power over to the white wire and the neutral over to the bare wire. Nice.
At this point, I'm not sure how this is going to pan out. The cable probably got damaged during installation, but it goes to an island and it's on a slab. I'm hoping for accessible conduit that would allow me to make a decent repair, and I'll explore that angle if he has me back. The panel is in the garage, adjacent to the kitchen, but the wire goes up.
Right now I don't know if the bare "neutral" is hooked up to the neutral bus or to the ground. It sure as hell isn't insulated. Also, I wonder if the dead leg on the service could in any way be associated with the clusterfrank in the panel.
The panel was put together in an unusual way in that there were six double poles at the top and sixteen space savers at the bottom of the GE panel. There were two full-size singles just above the SS breakers, with a no-man's land of 8-10 unused slots between the single poles and the doubles. The knock-outs were in place. Must have had a sale on the little ones.
Just to get the most critical issue resolved, I got out my bucket o breakers and installed six full size singles in every other slot in the no-man's land and moved wires from the dead circuits to the temporary breakers and got the lights, the fridge, and the master bedroom illuminated, plus a good many outlets. After the power company got their part done, I went back and put everything back and removed the temporary breakers.
That is the background information. While working in the panel I noticed a white wire tied into one of the full size single-pole breakers. I removed it and alerted the customer to it. On the return trip, the customer told me that the dishwasher had stopped functioning. I checked the labels and the d/w breaker was the one that had had the white wire on it. I went in the kitchen and pulled the kickplate off the dishwasher and went into the junction box. The house white wire was attached to the d/w black wire and the house ground was attached to the d/w white wire. The black house wire was simply clipped off and sitting there, just like in the panel. So, the black wire got damaged somewhere and the electrician moved the power over to the white wire and the neutral over to the bare wire. Nice.
At this point, I'm not sure how this is going to pan out. The cable probably got damaged during installation, but it goes to an island and it's on a slab. I'm hoping for accessible conduit that would allow me to make a decent repair, and I'll explore that angle if he has me back. The panel is in the garage, adjacent to the kitchen, but the wire goes up.
Right now I don't know if the bare "neutral" is hooked up to the neutral bus or to the ground. It sure as hell isn't insulated. Also, I wonder if the dead leg on the service could in any way be associated with the clusterfrank in the panel.
