shop-talk
[Top] [All Lists]

[Shop-talk] Electrical fire waiting to happen

To: "Shop-Talk" <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Subject: [Shop-talk] Electrical fire waiting to happen
From: "Randall" <tr3driver@ca.rr.com>
Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2008 15:04:14 -0700
FYI,

I recently bought a 220v air compressor and was looking today at wiring it
up.  My house has a 125 amp sub-panel with some spare breaker slots, so
should be no problem, right ?

Well, turns out that sub-panel and it's breakers were made by Federal
Pacific.  I'd never heard of them, but when I called a contractor friend, he
immediately said "Aren't those the ones that catch fire ?" !

Turns out he's right.  Apparently "back when", Federal Pacific falsified
their data to receive UL approval, and their circuit breakers (and panel)
are simply a bad design that should never have been sold.  A high percentage
of the breakers can fail to open under various fault conditions; and even
jam permanently closed so they will not open under any fault conditions !

It's a long, strange story; still being played out in the courts.  Lots and
lots of details at
http://www.inspect-ny.com/fpe/fpe.html

You might want to check what kind of circuit breakers your home has ...
I'm off to look at new sub-panels.

Randall
_______________________________________________
Support Team.Net  http://www.team.net/donate.html


Shop-talk mailing list

http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/shop-talk

http://www.team.net/archive

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>