As an home inspector & not an electrician how would you report the following.
(What I mean is in the eyes of a home inspector would you report on the mentioned issues) (as an electrician I would think you would consider a sloppy install)
The romex above the panel. Would you recommend securing or not report about this.
The grounds being intertwined together. Should they be individualy connected to the ground bar.
The bare aluminum wire has been cut to fit the lug at the top left of the panel.
I would say what I see that needs correction and recommend they get an electrician to repair as required immediately.
I expect you saw other things in the Home, plates missing, GFCIs required Covers missing ect.
I don’t think that the ground has been cut. It looks like it was previously terminated in a lug and retains the shape of the set screw. Also notice the compound around the depressed area.
The individual branch circuit ground must be terminated to the buss. Most buss bars will accept 2, of the same size, terminated in 1 hole.
Since this is an educational forum would someone care to enlighten me with being specific on the violations with this panel. Are there any safety concerns or are these NEC specific violations.
As Speedy mentioned why is there a ground wire at the bottom of the sub panel. Shouldnt this be attached at the main.
Speaking of the main. I didnt take off this cover by the meter as it was shared with another unit. Maybe I should have. Would you?
He didn’t say but if this is a sub in a detached building it would need another ground electrode system … or this could just be bonding pipes.
As for the combined grounds, the only real violation is they are not joined with a listed splicing method. There is nothing that says you need to take all EGCs back to the grounding bus. In fact, as long as the conductor is sized to the largest O/C device served, they can all come back on one wire. The exception to that is the swimming pool underwater light. (EGC must be insulated and unspliced)
They should have secured the Romex at the top of the panel tho.
Are you sure about that, Jeff? I inspect panels that look like this one, and the right half of the panel contains the servivce disconnects. This looks like one of those.
It was an honest question. I obviously can’t see where it goes. Maybe it goes to a ground rod that is not needed in this case.
MOST DIYers think a ground rod is needed at ANY sub-panel.
To me, it looks like the right half is the lateral gutter, where there would be nothing other than spliced conductors. The disconnects appear to be beneath each meter.
If there are breakers and a dead-front in the right side, by all means, remove the cover, but that’s not how it looks from my perspective. . .
If the panel is screwed shut (like this one in particular), there are spliced cables inside them. If this cover is able to be lifted up and opened, it contains the service disconnects.
In this situation, Jeff is correct. The right side panel is scewed shut and the two service disconnects are accessible and located under the two meters.
All you are going to find inside this cover is spliced cables. There’s no need to remove.
