Hello all,
Recently had an inspection done on a flipped, 70 year old house in N FL. There was a 200amp main breaker in the box but the original wiring was for 100amps. My handyman noticed this, the plumber giving me a quote for a tankless water heater noticed this, the home inspector did not.
What do you guys think? Is this something that a home inspector should notice or does it fall outside what is expected?
To be clear, we’ve already purchased the home and corrected the electrical issue. I’m just curious what kind of expectations I should have with home inspectors going forward
Do you mean the service entrance conductors were only rated for 100 amps? Or, can you be more specific when you say the “wiring was for 100 amps?” That statement on its own doesn’t really tell us much unfortunately.
The electrician I hired said this
“The existing service wires are undersized probably rated for only 100amp total. I’ll provide new exterior overhead service with new mast, and new grounding.
Install new meter main on exterior of home, install new 200amp service cable from meter main, to interior panel.”
Think that should give you a good idea of what work was needed
Common practice in my area on older homes. PoCo says it’s okey-dokey as long as condition is good, (not deteriorated or damaged).
(And yes, there are always exceptions).
Note: The Minnesota “Minimum Standard” for panels is 100 AMP Rated. Most every Meter is 200 AMP Rated. Service Drop are all over the place, but PoCo claims all are good Minimum 200 AMPS.
It sounds like you have a 100 amp service. The home inspector should have identified it as such as required by Florida standards. If they identified it as a 200amp service, you may have a claim against them.
Your electrician doesn’t sound very sure of himself. The conductors are either rated for 100 amps or they’re not.
The electrician needs to identify the wire type and gauge: it’s printed on the wire. The power company makes the determination on the wires from the pole to the point of entry.
Ditto Roberts question, that is a terrible looking “panel replacement” by the flippers. Also, did your electrician actually say “probably rated for 100amps”? That is a very ambiguous description from an electrician and could be a bit of a red flag about their skill.
It was thru text; it might have just been easier to write that than to explain it. Either way we ended up using a different electrician because of pricing
I would take issue with the note saying that “this is generally an easy and inexpensive repair” regarding the lack of cable connectors. The entire panel or all of the cables would need to be removed, the proper NM cable connectors installed and then it would need to be rewired. That is by no means inexpensive. Also the panel is missing the MBJ (main bonding jumper) typically a green bonding screw. The service entrance cable does appear to be 100 amps but unless there is an overcurrent protection device on the outside of the house the 200 amp circuit breaker is the wrong size.
Did the HI know or state anything about the system not being able to support additional systems? Most likely NO…
