APARTMENT ELECT – different panels?
toolbear
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
APARTMENT ELECT – different panels?
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We redoing a burned out ’70s apartment with a Zinsco 6/12 main lug panel. Maxed out with half height breakers. I thought that over six hand motions and you needed a disconnect there. It’s downstairs, out back and at the meter.
I found a Square D homelite series 100a 20/20 that might suit. We are going to have a few more circuits than they did Back When.
Is a residental line of panel OK for commercial use?
(I should think that if they are good enough for a home, they should be good enough for a two bedroom apartment, but regulation is a strange thing, so I ask.)
The ToolBear
“You can’t save the Earth unless you are willing to make other people sacrifice.” Dogbert
Replies
siemens makes a 100 amp 30 space for 75.00 at hd.
can't have to many spaces.
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siemens makes a 100 amp 30 space for 75.00 at hd.can't have to many spaces.@@@I will look up the Siemens.I feel comfy with a 40/40. I was reminded on another project that you cannot get a 40/40 semiflush meter/main with a top feed. Had to go 20/40. The HO opened the bay for the panel before I got there - on the outside, from sill to roof line all that stucco went away. I would have done it from the inside, except for the hole for the panel. Then it rained. Hard.The ToolBear
"You can't save the Earth unless you are willing to make other people sacrifice." Dogbert
There are no "commercial" or "residential" panels for the occupancy you're dealing with.
So, any UL-listed loadcenter will do for an apartment. The "six motions of the hand" rule applies to a service. If the panel you're dealing with has a main disconnect upstream, the six motions rule doesn't apply. Probably it was O.K. when built because only six breakers were used. Or maybe not, and the inspector was lax.
There are loadcenters which are used almost exclusively in industrial (and in a few commercial) applications, because of the cost. These are panels with bolt-in breakers; the breakers are attached to the hot bus by bolts, instead of a spring clip. These are typically three-phase panels. The bolted attachement makes for a connection that (if torqued correctly and maintained) never loosens.
Cliff
There are loadcenters which are used almost exclusively in industrial (and in a few commercial) applications, because of the cost. These are panels with bolt-in breakers; the breakers are attached to the hot bus by bolts, instead of a spring clip. These are typically three-phase panels. The bolted attachement makes for a connection that (if torqued correctly and maintained) never loosens.@@@Tnx for the info. I will find a panel I can respect in the morning - with some capacity for the new circuits and old. My antique (1962) Bulldog Pushmatic panel at the condo has bolt downs. Lordie, I'd love to find that someone has made a retrofit kit for this. No luck so far. I'd love some new breakers. The newer Pushmatics have a tab on the back.The ToolBear
"You can't save the Earth unless you are willing to make other people sacrifice." Dogbert
CH makes a retrofit kit. The best that I can tell it is basically the whole guts out of selected version of the CH and BR series.They have a number of sizes to fit different panels.They are special order..
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
CH makes a retrofit kit. The best that I can tell it is basically the whole guts out of selected version of the CH and BR series.They have a number of sizes to fit different panels.@@@Tnx. I will start digging.The ToolBear
"You can't save the Earth unless you are willing to make other people sacrifice." Dogbert
"CH makes a retrofit kit. The best that I can tell it is basically the whole guts out of selected version of the CH and BR series.They have a number of sizes to fit different panels."But not for your long and narrow side-by-side meter and panel, TB, at least as of last year they didn't.BruceT
Meter/mains need love too. Sure don't get any.Downloaded 10 pg pdf so perhaps there is something for the Californians.The ToolBear
"You can't save the Earth unless you are willing to make other people sacrifice." Dogbert
Bruce, isn't it past your bedtime? 2301 here.I get to stay up late on Saturday nights. During the week it's up at 0430 and bed by 2100 if not 19 or 2000. During the summer it's... "I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter." T. S. Elliot, The Waste LandTB loves his TSE. Carries a book of his poems in the van.The ToolBear
"You can't save the Earth unless you are willing to make other people sacrifice." Dogbert
Sorry to jump in on a post, but what is this "six motions of the hand rule?" I've never heard of that before.
What that means is that power can be total cut off to a building with no more than 6 "main" switches or breakrs all close together.Some older breaker panels and most of the fuse panels that where used with 60-80 amp service where what was called "split bus". The power can into a bus on the panel that was attached to several fuse blocks or high current breakers. One would be for the range, another for a dryer, etc. And one breaker or block feed the split bus which had the breakers or fuses for the 15 and 20 amp 120 circuits.Thus a panel could have a maximum of 6 of those "main" breakers or fuse blocks.Now day almost all panels in homes either have a single main breaker or in some case a separate single handle disconnect.But 320/400 amp services are getting more common. And 400 amp equipment is expensive. So what is common practice is to use a meter socket with 2 sets of luggs and it feeds two 150-200 amp panels that are mounted side by side. Each of those panels are service entrance equipment with a main disconnect..
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe