I am new so please forgive my ignorance. In the picture, there are two conduits going to the meter. The one on the left is the main SE line from the utility company. The one on the right looks like a feeder conductor that connect a sub panel in the detached garage directly with the meter/utility SE. Is this ok? Should the sub panel not first go to the main panel?
From what you are describing, it sounds like 2 separate mains fed from meter can.
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Good quuiestion.
I would think that the detached garage should be fed from the panel with the main disconnect or another meter can should be feeding the garage. But this is my opinion.
Looking forward to @rmeier2 comment to your question.
Regardless it looks like poor workmanship at least concerning the conduit for the detached garage feed.
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Agree with your opinion, Kevin. No apparent OCPD for detached garage.
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Are you sure the feeders for garage are not just passing through the meter can. Do you have photos of the main panel opposite meter?
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It doesn’t need an ocpd if the conduit goes underground to the service panel.
Just can’t run through the building
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Do you have photos of the panels?
Photos of both the main and garage panel have been attached. I’m fairly sure the feeders do not just pass through.
If the feeders go to the SE itself, how would the homeowner renovate the garage if they chose to, say redo the electrical / siding? There is no way to cut power to the garage, correct?
Is the top left 30 amp breaker labeled as “garage”.
If so that is you disconnect .
Like Christopher said.
Do you have any pictures with the covers removed?
It is perfectly fine to run a separate feed from the meter directly to the detached garage. There is no requirement for it to be fed from the house panel.
I myself have 2 outbuildings and the house all with separate feeds directly from our meter.
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They can be disconnected at the meter, just like if you had to kill the house feed.
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Underground lateral.
I agree with Daniel that it looks like that 30 amp breaker is for the garage, if that is indeed the case, the garage panel should be wired as a sub panel.
Do you have pictures you can post of the inside of the panels?
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To echo what several others have said not much else can be determined without photo’s of both panels without the covers.
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I guess we’ll never know.
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I agree. Looking an the ledger blown up it might say GARAGE
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Sorry for the delay. Here are photos of the panels with covers removed. I am just now learning about the electrical component via internachi, but after removing the garage panel I noticed something strange: one of the feeder lines (I think it would be the neutral line) is not attached to anything - it has elec. tape on the end of it. You can see it in the top left corner in a shadow. Shouldn’t this be connected to the neutral bus? And shouldn’t there be a separate bus for the ground?
From these pictures, you have 2 separate feeds from the meter. One to the house and one to the garage. This looks like the garage panel and note the lug on the right that was hidden by the installed breakers.
Also, the neutral is not properly identified.
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