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What's Wrong With This Picture??

4K views 29 replies 14 participants last post by  eherlihy 
#1 ·
I took this photo yesterday.... It's an AC panel equipped with a 30A main AC breaker with four 15A branch breakers. It feeds a water heater, battery charger, outlets and one breaker is used as a spare.

Aside from:
Improper grounding (which can't really be entirely seen)
Some improperly non-factory crimped terminals
Sawdust
Improperly mounted bus bar
Corrosion

What's really wrong with it????



First one to get it wins a self applied chest thump, followed by two self applied thumbs up gestures..:D
 
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#9 ·
Bingo!!!!! We have a winner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



What's wrong with the photo is;

In a marine application the double pole main breaker is intended to interrupt both the NEUTRAL/WHITE wire and the BLACK/HOT wire. The main breaker should not be jumpered like that to break only the BLACK/HOT wire.

Red is also an improper color to be used on this particular panel. Red wire denotes 12V DC + or one leg of a 240V AC system. This is a 120V system and as such only BLACK/HOT, WHITE/NEUTRAL and GREEN/SAFETY GROUND are to be used not red. While not the main problem it is one of the many smaller "issues" ....

The other major issue on this boat was that the AC/DC grounding bond tie was non-existent. The GREEN AC safety ground wire is to be tied to the ships DC grounding bus, it was not.

OK now thump chest and give two thumbs up!!

This is what the panel looked like a few hours later. Notice the difference in how it is wired. The top two wires, white and black are the AC input from shore. Out the bottom left of the breaker the white/neutral leads back to the AC neutral bus for distribution and the black/hot feeds the individual branch circuit breakers out the bottom right of the main AC breaker


If your boat is not wired to interrupt both BLACK/HOT and WHITE/NEUTRAL, in a fault, please get this fixed..
 
#24 ·
Well, I was refering to the indicator (or Pilot) lights in the picture. If they were LEDs the wires would be color coded for polarity. Polarity doesn't matter for neon or incandescent, but it does for LEDs - they will not light with reversed polarity (they're diodes, and a diode only allows current to flow in one direction).
 
#25 ·
Not so for *AC* circuits. Either way, they are in wrong half the time ;)

Well, I was refering to the indicator (or Pilot) lights in the picture. If they were LEDs the wires would be color coded for polarity. Polarity doesn't matter for neon or incandescent, but it does for LEDs - they will not light with reversed polarity (they're diodes, and a diode only allows current to flow in one direction).
 
#26 · (Edited)
Some panel mount LEDs have an internal diode bridge to make them non polar. This allows them to be used on AC and reverse polarity DC systems. Also, some LEDs are bright enough that even when they are only on half the time, they still give enough light to indicate acceptably. There will be a resistor or other current limiting circuit as part of the indicator.

The ones that give me fits are the ones that change color with polarity or by mulitple lead connections. I am red/green color blind and though I can usually see that the cussed thing is ON, I cannot always tell what color it is.
 
#30 ·
I found this thread last night, while setting up a new TV with an internet browser. While I could read, and see the pix, I could not post a reply using the remote control (with only an numeric keyboard).

The things that I saw/see are:
  • Neutral should have a breaker - I can't see one.
  • There is no reverse polarity indicator - making the above downright scary!
  • ABYC Color code? - NO way does this conform.
  • The ground bus does not look to be secured to anything. This could get exciting in choppy water, while connected to AC. (For example during a storm, while secured, and connected to AC, at the dock)
  • Also on that ground bus (I would love to have seen a clearer pic of that), it appears that Green, White AND Black are all connected.

In your opinion, was this wiring done by the owner, previous owner, or builder?
 
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