This call for help was that the monthly utility grid billing was over $300.00 and the inside light fixtures would turn off and on by themself or the light bulbs would just blow up as soon as they were screwed in. To start the gas furnace a kitchen outlet controlling the coffee pot had to be turned on for the furnace to start? Many outlets did not work and on and on the list of problems continued for a onsite meeting to determine the course of action to take to resolve the many issues.
The recent onsite electrical service call for help has me scratching my head even with 43 years hands on experience and a retired master electrician with this 1988 mobile home 2 bedroom 2 bathroom typical kitchen and living room. Reversed polarity on outlets, extension cords hanging out of windows feeding outside lights these issues stem from many years of poor electrical repairs. WIth a pole mounted utility meter base 100 amp 240 volt stepped down to a 60 amp 240 volt breaker to feed a plug and cord attachment for the inside 100 amp Main Breaker panel. As usual the inside home panel was full of 120 and 240 volt breakers and all of the 120 volt breakers that were the piggy back style. The PVC 2" pipe that came thru the floor to feed the inside mobile home panel also had 3 other sets of 240 volt wiring that was feeding ? along with the plug and cord attachment for a total of 4 sets ?. (The above pipe should hold only the plug and cord cable) so this leads me to believe that was added onto after the factory wiring ?.
After 20 hours of all new inside outlets and switches devices and correcting the old backstabbed wire termination to the more reliable pigtail true series circuit according folded and removing all light fixtures and replacing with plastic keyless with 9 watt LED bulb replacement from older 60 watt bulbs. (The reason for light fixture replacement was all old fixtures had brittle wiring and sockets from using 100 watt bulbs in 60 watt sockets) And replacing the old inside Main Breaker panel along with all new circuit breakers gauged to proper wire size and zero piggy back . All that work tightened up everything humanly possible with the original mobile home inside wiring harness and if further issues arose which they did it would be with the outside pole mounted utility meter base 100 amp 240 volt stepped down to a 60 amp 240 volt breaker to feed a plug and cord attachment for the inside 100 amp Main Breaker panel.
Getting voltage reading between 197 and 220 in the 120 volt on the inside outlets and very dimming on the inside lighting when loads like the furnace and refrigerator start ups? Further troubleshooting on the pole mounted utility meter base 100 amp 240 volt stepped down to a 60 amp 240 volt breaker to feed a plug and cord attachment for the inside 100 amp Main Breaker panel. Found that LINE SIDE utility grid meter at a steady 120 240 volt single phase and LOAD SIDE utility grid meter jumping all over when startup loads were trying to be applied? A call the the local utility grid provider for a service call revealed that a Neutral Switch was the cause of the voltage spikes and replacement of this Neutral Switch would revolve the spiking issues? Between you and I this seems fishy as I have never heard of a Neutral Switch used in grid tied residential electrical useage?
My recommendation to the client was to remove the pole mounted utility meter base 100 amp 240 volt stepped down to a 60 amp 240 volt breaker to feed a plug and cord attachment for the inside 100 amp Main Breaker panel. And to upgrade the service to 200 amp meter base and 200 amp weatherproof Main Breaker panel. This than would allow the plug and cord 60 amp 240 volt to be removed and replaced with 100 amp thhn copper wire and PVC conduit feed by a 100 amp 240 volt breaker in the new weatherproof panel. Also another 100 amp 240 volt PVC conduit feed for a metal pole barn on the property with a 100 amp 240 volt subpanel installed there to power the necessary loads.
Sadly the client did not take my recommendations and went to cobbling up the pole mounted utility meter base 100 amp 240 volt stepped down to a 60 amp 240 volt breaker to feed a plug and cord attachment for the inside 100 amp Main Breaker panel themself.
D B Electric
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