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| Subject - No main circuit breaker shut off | |
| dscott | just bought an old house which appears to have had some electrical upgrades. The main panel does not have a shut off switch. As best I can tell, the only way to kill power is to shut off each circuit. My question is that if I want to add a circuit, this is going to be a problem as the panel is still hot, right? |
| JimmyDee | quote: You probably have an old split buss panel. There are probably 4, double pole breakers in the upper portion of the panel. Each of these is considered a main breaker, however, one of these, probably a 60 amp, will shut off all the bottom breakers. Pump, range, water heater had their own main breakers and shut off only the power to that one item and was not shut off by the 60 sub main breaker that feeds the rest of the lower part of the panel. BTW, welcome to the Electrical Knowledge site and hope we can answer all you questions. Jim |
| lctrc789 | Jimmy has a good point here if you do not have a disconnect outside or by the meter or else where you have the type of panel that groups the bus so that when you shut off the two pole breakers they act as the main breaker. This is allowed because of the grouping and falls under the disconnect rule as a group of disconnect or no more then six as a means of disconnect |
| Pierre Belarge | M**** Are you advocating improper electrical installation procedures? I think this is bad advice, especially to what seems to be other than an electrician. If you want to take your own health and safety into jepordy, that is one thing, but teaching this to others is not good for our industry. I am not trying to bash you, but this industry needs all the help it can get to move in the right direction. Pierre |
| JimmyDee | quote: After rereading the post, I agree with you Pierre and as a precaution, I have deleted the posting. I would like to remind the posters here the primary reason for this site's existence is to provide a place that experienced and qualified persons can dialog about electrical topics and not as a DIY help forum. We all want to help those in need but the danger of not understand by the DIYer can create dangers and liability that no one here wants. If anyone here sees a post that violates the spirit of this rule, please do not assume I have read and understand what was written. Please e-mail me and I will take correction in as timely manner as possible. Thanks, Jim |
| Mike Delaney | True...If I were speaking to an electrician, it would be like second nature, to do what I had suggested. To an unexperienced person it may be dangerous, if the person had any electrical experience, that would be the way to handle situation, besides yanking the ***** to disconnect power. With the post I've read lately there is alot of DIYS'rs posting....is there a better way to screen them before they get in????Because in my oppinion, electricians should be able to talk about all aspects electricity, the way I did. (dangerous in some peoples view or not). Maybe have them enter the LIC # or something. |
| JimmyDee | quote: I think there are questions that we can answer for a DIY person. I'll give an example: I just moved into this house and my other house had GFCI outlets in the bath room, do you think it would be a good idea if I had them in my new house too? I think the key here is to use some discression as to what we feel is instruction on to do a job and helping a DIYer from not getting himself hurt or killed. Where is that fine line, don't allways know but I think this site can serve more than the profesional electrician and keep the liabiality issues at zero. I think this is were David, Scott and I will moderated and make the final desissions on that issue. (actually Scott will) We can not read every post with the increase in posting over the last year so we will depend on the members here to bring some questionable posts to our attention. Jim |
| journeyman491us | ...Can't we proffesionals spot a "do it Yourselfer" a mile away??? When in doubt "Call a professional!" Best way to let DIY'ers off the hook easy folks.. "A little knowledge in the wrong hands is dangerous folks." Before responding to posts...try to identify the DIY'ers...and point them in the right direction "CALL A PROFESIONAL!"
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| JimmyDee | quote: Not always and we risk turning off the professional that has a hard time expressing them-selves in writing. Sometimes it is a bit of a balancing act and we, being human, do screw up once and a while. I was one, at first, that thought it was OK to help the DIYer but I have seen the wrong of my ways and have repented.  Jim |
| lctrc789 | I don't see where we told this indivual to do anything we answered his question. Sometimes we can answewr questions with out stating that we told them to do something dangerous. He asked a question and we answered it. Nothing worse then to tell someone to call a pro if they ask a simple question. We can alwasy help people and advise them to seek a pro for work but can alwasy answer a quetion. |
| JimmyDee | quote: You are not totally in the know here. A little time has gone by so I don't remember all the details but we had a post that was telling the originator of this thread to do something that could have been dangerous even for someone that knew what he was doing. Pierre Belarge brought it to my attention and I deleted the post. Moderating on a forum is a judgment call and everyone that reads a thread, isn't always privy to all the reasons we do things. However, with that said we always allow you to have an opinion and you can express it as long as it is done in a nice way. You know we moderators have tender feelings and can be offended easily. With that said, if you ever feel there is something being posted that shouldn't be, please e-mail one of the moderators because we may not see it. Jim |