Howdy. I am from Canada and my father lives in Tacoma WA. he has a small duplex house. about 6-700 sq ft. each. there is a panel for each half with about 4 or 5 breakers in each. my question is that there are no main breakers. the service comes from the ground to the meter to the panel. no main anywhere. how does this work? how do they shut it off? we looked out at the street and never saw anything. is this a normal or common thing down there?
just curious
Tmaxxx
Urban Workshop Ltd
Vancouver B.C.
cheers. Ill buy.
Replies
as is, no can do, unless the meter is pulled...
if I read this right the house is on a direct feed from the meter...
is there a meter???
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It is possibly legal.
You are allowed upto have upto 6 different "handles" for use as a disconnect.
So it qualifies based on that.
I am not sure about multiple occupancy buildings, but I don't think that they require a common disconnect.
There could be other issues such as how the wire is run from the meter to the panels that would require an external disconnect.
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
The six motions of the hand rule applies also to multiple unit service entrances. So over six units and at least one disconnect will need to shut of several units.
Ed
There used to be panels called a split buss which sounds like what is installed.
You have to turn off several 240 breakers to kill the service. No main breaker in the panel.
In DE, some builders installed them here until about the late 70's.
Sounds like an upgrade opportunity! If not the whole panel, at least a main disconnect.
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
the service comes from the ground to the meter to the panel
You'll need some one up-to-speed on WA code, but around here, the main CB in the top of the panel "counts" as the service disconnect as long as the meter is adjacent to the panel. Which means we have numbers of duplexes with panels on outside walls (almost all, matter of fact).
From the way you wrote it, the service "drop" is underground, correct? Does the conduit rise up to the meter with the panel over that? Or are they side-by-side or some such other arrangement?
conduit comes from ground up into meter. meter is on outside of house. panel is on inside. seems weird.
just talking to him, the only water shut off is on the street too. boy did they build this with the least amount of stuff.Tmaxxx
Urban Workshop Ltd
Vancouver B.C.
cheers. Ill buy.
the only water shut off is on the street too
LoL! That's where mine is. And the 53 y/o globe valve on the house side of the meter is frozen open; luckily, the gate valve on the city side works.
I ought to show my sad excuse for a SD/panel, but, I'm feeling lazy about searching for the right photo to then resize.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)