Finishing Electrical Panel (Questions)

[Michael Roback]

The guy that installed the subpanel (Siemens) left the panel door off and must have lost the screws. The screw holes on the box are slighly smaller than a 10-32. Do I rethread and use 10-32 screws or is there a special screw used to mount panel door onto the box.

Also there is a bolt missing that holds down the neutral strap that runs from one bar to the other. So it is not connected accross. Anyone know the size of that bolt so that I can install it properly.

A few lights in the house periodically will go off and them come back on? Is this the bulb? The breaker never trips!

Anyone know what kind of voltage comes through the service cables into a subpanel? It is a 200 AMP panel.

[RBM]

If this is in fact a subpanel, the two sides of the "neutral" bars may have been separated for a reason, isolating equipment grounds from neutrals. You may want to have an electrician look at it to be sure. The voltage is

[toller]

I needed two screws for my Sylvania box. The ones HD had were completely different from mine, but the clerk said they fit all boxes. Amazingly, they fit. Worth a try.

Do you mean the neutral bus and ground bus are not connected? If it is a subpanel, that is proper. If the problem is different that this, please elaborate.

You have a loose connection somewhere. Could be the lamp socket, the breaker, or anywhere inbetween. I have a lamp that is built into a headboard that does this. Haven't found a good solution and can't replace it; but at least I know it is the lamp socket.

You have two 120v wires, with 240v between them. 200a is a pretty big subpanel; is that actually what you meant?

[Percival P. Cassidy]

Our previous home had 60A main fuses, and we blew one every now and again until we rearranged some circuits between "legs."

Our current home has a 100A panel, and we have never tripped a breaker, but many of the books I've read say that 200A is becoming more common.

I'm probably going to replace our subpanel in the basement by a 200A one (mainly for the additional spaces: 32 instead of 20). Although it's a SUBpanel (because the main panel is in the garage with only the main breaker and a breaker for the garage circuit), it needs a large capacity because everything but the garage is fed through it.

Perce

On 01/23/05 03:31 pm toller tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

[Michael Roback]

Yeah, you are right. The Neutral and Ground bus are not connected, however the guy left the bar bolted into the neutral bus and left the other side hanging without a bolt. Basically, he did not bolt the bar down onto the ground bus. When the electrician that I currently have looked at it, he said that it needed to be connected and stated what the correct bolt size for it would be but I cannot remember. It is a subpanel. The main panel with a main breaker sits out in front of my house and the subpanel is inside with all of the individual circuit breakers in it, in additon to the main for that panel.

The old electrician who was a builder/electrician who did the remodel also left notes saying that an future electrician should split the 3 and five wire branch circuits to each leg of the incoming power and panel bus to prevent overload on the neutrals. The new electrician who is a master electrician, head of a local electrical union said that this doens't really make sense. Does it make sense to you?

I also know that the city likes to have all neutral circuits split up at the device locations and to avoid tying all neutrals together. The new electrician said that this is not really necessary but would do it if I wanted him to. Does this make sense to you.

[Tekkie]

Percival P. Cassidy posted for all of us....

And this relates to the original post HOW?

[Percival P. Cassidy]

I was responding to toller's comment that 200A was a lot for a subpanel. The point is that even 200A may not be excessive for what is technically a SUBpanel. Our SUBpanel handles everything except the garage circuit. Perhaps the OP has a similar situation and *needs* a 200A subpanel.

Perce

On 01/24/05 07:57 pm Tekkie tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup: