Sunday, September 10, 2017

Slvania Circuit Breakers & Panels Dilemma

Service call original wiring 1 Sylvania breaker panel 240 volt 200 amp 1 Sylvania 240 volt 100 amp both panels stuffed full of 240 volt breakers and 120 volt piggyback breakers with wiring crammed in and less than 10 years old from a total rewire that was done by licensed electricians and inspected from a total remodel.


Client wants to add a 2.5 KW 240 volt load for a Sauna and wants to know how safe it would be to do so? The 2 panels are both Main Breaker and lead to overhead and underground to grid tied utility pole CT meter tap and meter is located on this utility pole.

The 240 volt 100 amp panel Out Building and would hold the intended new load and is located away from the 200 amp Home panel as described above for grid utility metering. 
(But the wires from grid wires to 100 amp Main Breaker are only #2 aluminum? http://www.armstrongssupply.com/wire_chart.htm 
How this even got inspected and passed and then hooked up by the grid utility is beyond me?) In short the only right fix for the #2 aluminum wires in question, that are not rated for 100 amps and the only fix is replacement to #2 copper thhn.

 Personally I dislike aluminum wire of any type because of the oxidation process that can happen if the oxide paste fails. Along with any aluminum wire needs to be twice the size of any copper wire for the same wattage & amperage being operated.

The next problem is the name Sylvania, go do any online research and you will discover nightmare after nightmare with these circuit breaker panels and also the breakers themself. The problem stems from the way the breakers snap onto the buss bar with a Zinsco engineering clip design that was prone to many failures. The only recommendations that I can find to see if a Sylvania breaker panel is good or bad? Is to have a licensed electrician shut the Main Breaker off and remove each breaker for inspection of arcing damage along with the buss bar where the breaker came from. Research has shown that clip failure causing loss connection and also code does not allow cross referencing brands of various manufactories.

In this service call there not only is Sylvania circuit breakers but also Square D Homeline, G E, ITE and one other I can not make out? So in this case I have 5 different breaker manufacturers all new less than 10 years ago? Where does this end? Sadly it keeps going because every bit of it already has been inspected and passed and the homeowner does not have a clue of the screwing that they got on the updated electrical that they paid for less than 10 years ago. Without removing every outlet and switch and doing a visual inspection as well as a test tone inspection God and the licensed contractor who did the original rewire work know where all those wires lead to? Just looking at the craftsmanship that they left behind tells of fault after fault. (An example of this is SEU cable in the 2" riser pipe for the 100 amp panel the SEU neutral is bare aluminum wrapped with black tape inside the 100 amp panel. The whip going to the central AC unit outside is regular flexible conduit rated for indoor use but they got clever and painted it gray. The whip should be weatherproof coated rated as well as all exterior whip connections.)

All I can do is document what I see for this client and let them make there own choices on how to proceed with or without additional repairs as the last licensed electrician sure did not do these people a good job at all. So back to the the original question can the 100 amp panel hold the 2.5 KW 240v load?

Yes as long as no other large 240 volt loads are also operated on the original #2 aluminium wires (grid to Main Breaker) will hold the 2.5 KW load. 


Clearly you can see that a quality craftsman takes every aspect of a client's wattage load requirements into consideration as well as what he has to work with when it comes to original wiring issues. These 2 Sylvania panels have a bad rap and I would not want them in my home period. 

A to Z D B Electric has your electrical needs taken care of with quality craftsmanship and services.

D B Electric





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