Bad Breaker! Bad Breaker! Bad! Bad!

It was after all an ordinary day. "I reset the breaker, but it made a big bang!...Really big bang!"

Well, don't play with it. The immediate cause, a twist-lock plug/receptacle worn enough to insert different voltage/configuration plug into (with a bit of force probably) providing a nice, low impedance ground fault.

I felt the breaker doesn't reset properly: I opted to replace it. What's wrong with this picture?



The picture resolution is too low to see. All the breakers are 22kA (pix taken after repair) So how did a stab-in breaker with an IR of 10kA find its way into this panel? I'd like to believe a licensed electrician didn't have the proper rating on his truck, and was going to replace it with the correct one.

"Was going to" didn't happen. The reality is someone who wasn't qualified to wipe my boots after walking through a swamp of shit lugged a breaker into a panel inside a shopping mall. And I thought that stuff only happened in the third world...

Grounding?

I recently replaced a condensate drain pan discharge line heater on a Traulsen refrigerator. Nothing new about that, it happens, and this unit is old, old, old. The line cord electrical box happened to be missing a cover, so I figured I'd replace it, but check this out.




Look closely, and you can just make out the green grounding wire is cut. It's actually been cut by presumably some terrorist or anarchist. A long time ago in a job far, far away, doing some P.M. work at a middle school's Home Ec room. I came across a domestic refrigerator with a broken/missing ground pin on the plug. Even back then, I was liability and safety conscious, and replaced the plug forthright, only to find it now tripped the breaker. It was late, school was dismissed, no one was around. I traced the problem to a shorted compressor coil. I moved their food elsewhere and condemned the unit.

Did a mentally unbalanced person cut this plug in order to make the unit work at the risk of the user? What if someone was somehow grounded and unwittingly touched a metal part of this thing and couldn't let go? It's happened, peruse EC&M's Forensic Casebook. I was afraid my Traulsen also had a bad compressor, but turned out it was fine and runs happily with equipment grounding.

It makes a strong case for running a ground test on all equipment you work on, even in a non-electrical capacity, or running a grounding assurance program...

Ct P1 and E1 Mandatory Training 2006

It seems I'm losing ground with mandatory occupational training in place. I was disappointed in both programs this year. I grow tired of being hit over the head with wire size derating calculations again. I was happy with the code violating devices the E1 instructor passed around, but preparation for both seminars was shabby. I'm penalizing myself by attending early in the year, as instructors teach their first classes.

Disruptive students further reduced the quality of the program, though certainly providing entertainment.

I was taken aback by the assertion the state mandated the purchase of code change update book. I have no problem paying to update my code books, but being forced to purchase additional material after being updated on most changes as they were written in trade periodicals was infuriating. (I almost wish I could become angry)

On the bright side, rumor has it the program might be reduced in frequency to a 2 or 3 year cycle. Next year I'll be looking for known, trusted instructors names verses convenient locations.

Nameplates

The use of stick-on, typed nameplates should be banned. They wear out, and vital service information is lost, such as refrigerant charge. On HVAC units, they fade in sunlight. Often the manufacturer has no idea what they made, so they're useless as a backup. Look at an old methyl chloride unit with a stamped steel plate...still there!

Sloppy breaker workmanship

So I've chosen to complain my first blog. No. I'm not complaining. I am happy to find profit opportunities in the shortcomings of existing workmanship. I fix it, and leave the world a better place. My customer benifits from a safer, more secure facility...the stars smile upon me.

I had to reset a tripped breaker the other day, and discovered a 30 amp 2 pole feeding a single receptacle (Nema L6-20R) rated for 20 amp. As far as sins go, it's minor, though clearly a violation.

I also see GE breakers bolted into the WESCO panels. C'mon guys!!! Sure, it works, but article 110 asks we use UL Listed equipment. Is a GE breaker UL listed for a WESCO panel? If you look, you shall find. WESCO breakers, though expensive, are available...I can even find old FPE bolt ons.

Test

This is the test run of the blog to follow shortly