Help with panel and wire overheating.

Specific Inspection Topics Electrical Inspections
1

Inspection today on a Manufactured Housing 1994 and found this type of Electrical panel I never seen before.
Appears to have been manufactured by Square D which is common around here.

The whole panel, tub and panel front is all plastic.

Found three neutral conductors that are overheated at on time and not sure what caused it.

Any help would be appreciated. :slight_smile:

2

Two possible causes for the neutral over heating .
Most common is the fastening screw Not tightened properly at instillation .
The other is the neutral is the return for two hot wires .

3

I would have some check the main service Marcel

4

Found the best info here. Paul is still a great source of information.

5

When overheating is that evident calling for repair by qualified persons in is order.

This does not happen without a problem in need of correction.

6

Marcel,
Was there any indication of single strand AL conductors in the MH? I have run across this in the past with early 90’s MH’s.

7

Thanks guys, this was very helpful.
The post from Paul back in 2007 helped.

Never come across such a thing before and done many trailers.

Panel cover comes off hard. A breaker 20 for that panel is $55 I just found.
The home is been vacant for 2 years. The owner was there during the inspection doing outside work.

You might have noticed that there is no main breaker.

It is being fed from a 200 amp panel GE in the detached garage.

I deferred to to an electrician, but the clients Father is a Master Electrician.
He also had made a comment to his that he had never seen these type panels.

Jeff, no single strand alluminum wiring seen.

Plenty of Quest PB2110 though. ;):slight_smile:

8

You hit the daily Double Marcel.

The missing main breaker makes sense for a trailer.

9

Yes, the disconnect is usually outside on a pole around here. Not underground 100’ away in the garage. :slight_smile:

10

This was the panel in the garage (GE) feeding the trailer.

Double tap that I saw and neutrals and grounds all on the same grounding bar and there is one on both sides of the panel.

Deferred that one too. :slight_smile:

11

One other thing that can toast all the neutrals is lightning.

12

No problem with that, since this is the service equipment. However, I do not see where the terminal bar is bonded to the enclosure. Were you able to verify the bond?

13

No I didn’t Jeff, I am just deffering the whole thing to an electrician.
Luckily, the clients father is a Master electrician.

The client will most likely request that it all be repaired anyways. :slight_smile:

Thanks

14

Those Trillaint panels were an attempt by Sq D to come up with a new way of installing services/sub-panels solely with NM cable and an entirely plastic enclosure. They never really caught on but I can remember a big display they had set up in the supply house in the 90’s.

If this is in a separate structure then a disconnecting means and a GES is required. What is the unit that the feeder conductors are attached to?

15

Robert, the main panel is in the garage about 100’ away and fed underground through PVC.

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16

The CB at the bottom of your photo should be the disconnecting means. There is a separate EGC and the neutrals and EGC’s appear to be separate. As long as there is a grounding electrode system you should be OK once the burnt conductors are repaired.

17

Thanks Robert and I just noticed, there are four conductors leaving the main panel and only 3 entering the trailer panel.
Wonder what happened to the fourth one.? :slight_smile:

18

Woops
looks like some one is trying to convince all they have two hots a neutral and a ground . Not good .There should be only one ground in the system … Roy

19

From what I can see you have 4 conductors on both ends of the feeder. The service panel should have only 3 conductors feeding it which appears to be at the bottom left of this photo.

20

Just wondering where that fourth one went.:slight_smile: