Home Improvement → Electrical Panel Upgrade

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persons who have Federal Pacific circuit breakers. The Court has already determined that Federal ... Pacific violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. The violation occurred because FPE cheated during its

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Not sure where you got your flawed "1%" information, but on the 1P units, the failure rate was about 20%. The failure rate on 2P is about 33%. The failure rate increases each time the breaker handle is operated. I don't know of too many households where a breaker has never been operated.

Not only do they have a serious FTT problem, but they also have a widely known bus attachment defect.

The most dangerous thing about these breakers is people who feel like they have to "make light" of the situation or spread misinformation contrary to fact. The "real" FTT documentation is available on the CPSC report.

To summarize the findings of a class action suit vs. FPE:
This Notice affects many persons who have Federal Pacific circuit breakers. The Court has already determined that Federal Pacific violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. The violation occurred because FPE cheated during its testing of circuit breakers in order to obtain Underwriters Laboratories (UL) approval. The Court has already certified this action as a class action, but in order for your claim to be considered you must act now.

Some of the evidence introduced in this case was quite damning and "shocking" (no pun intended).

They are dangerous and need to go.

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breaker panel regardless. The Federal Pacific Stab-Lok breakers (FP) are dangerous, period. I see ... >the Federal Pacific Stab-lok breakers and panel must be replaced as soon as humanly possible
You did post a few photos of the paper label in the panel door. Don't know what happened, but they are not here anymore. Only needed one; and was trying to see the configuration of the panel (considering it is clear that the panel is shown connected to a delta-winding). If you could put one good photo back up, I would appreciate it.

Your meter is clearly for a 240V, 3-wire system (which means single-phase system - 2 hots, 1 neutral). So you are right - they probably simply disconnected the third phase and safed it off. Would be interesting to see if you have 240V or 208V if you have a meter.

The existing breaker panel appears to be single-phase, 3-wire. It was probably hooked up to 2 of the three leg and a neutral - which means you either had 208V, 3-phase, 4-wire system from a wye transformer secondary winding; or a 240V high-leg delta, with a split winding to create the neutral. Either one would power a 3-phase air-conditioner; and give you 240V or 208V, single-phase service for everything else. The high-leg delta is very typical in some foreign countries (South America). I have done some work there, where 3-phase was used for (high) air-conditioning loads. Most utilities in the US are phasing them out and will not do new installs this way. (Kudos to Zach .)

You will need a new breaker panel regardless. The Federal Pacific Stab-Lok breakers (FP) are dangerous, period. I see the debate going on about testing; and questions about 'how long they tested them at 135% load'. My guess is that the labs knew what they were doing. Regardless of the UL requirements; thermal-magnetic breakers are required to (and are designed to) trip, well before the wiring is damaged. The wire used has a damage curve, current vs. time. The breakers have a similar trip curve. On a graph, the breaker trip curve must be well to the left of the wire damage curve. The UL picks some points, and says the breaker must do x. Bear in mind, this must work for every type of cable & wire allowed by the NEC, under every type of situation (i.e. cables run through insulation in the walls in the summer-time, etc.) As for other brand breakers and how often they failed in the 1970s - its negligible in comparison. Most fail so that they don't conduct at all. The FP breakers failed shorted, and their tripping (safety) function became disabled. The FP breakers have caused fires galore. To sum it up, the Federal Pacific Stab-lok breakers and panel must be replaced as soon as humanly possible. (More later...)That's a great idea. Bear in mind, you are going to need a licensed electrician for this job for:
- cutting electrical service
- performing load calculations
- determining existing capacity and properly sizing the new panel
- the job is beyond your skill set as presented here.You are over-reacting. Its not required. You can even call your local building department and ask. The wiring in the portion of your home that is not being renovated, was code-compliant when the home was built. It does not need to be replaced. Some previous poster was quoting the NEC section 'branch circuit extensions'. They don't know what that even means, apparently, because it has nothing to do with your plans.

I suggest, like others, getting a 42-pole panelboard. Is is barely more costly than a 30-pole unit; and will serve you for years to come. As for what size (in amps) - like I said, you need an electrician to perform the required load calculations for the new extension. You may also require an upgrade in service size to accommodate the extension. It doesn't make any sense to have a new panel put in now; only to rip it out and up-size later to support the extension. Beware of any electrician that says you need a service size upgrade without first getting a copy of their calculations. They are full of sh|t and looking to profit off of someone who doesn't know any better. Tell them to leave; you are looking for a reputable contractor. You only need to pay the extra money for a service size up-grade, if the calculations bear out that you will actually need one. (You would likely need to replace everything from the weatherhead down to the panel including the meter pan and meter, which will add another $1000 onto your bill, with high-profit margin for the contractor. You may even need the utility drop cables replaced. Not worth if, if the only reason to have it done is either so you can brag about it; or so the electrician can line his pockets.

You should consider having that weatherhead replaced with a better one with seals to keep water & moisture out of your enclosures. (Also they should look into sealing your equipment better.) Also, as is required by code - the conduits entering your house must be sealed to keep the cold air and moisture out. Many schlock electricians will skip this step; with many not even having a clue how this is properly done or what materials to use, other than a giant blob of duct-seal.

As for the 'bus-type' in your panel; most residential ones found in home improvement stores and anywhere else are not copper. They are most-often tin-plated aluminum. They work fine. You will pay through the nose if you force your contractor to purchase a copper bus. (I prefer copper bus myself; but not going to pay the price addition for a copper bus panel for a house.) Copper bus in a residential panel is special order, if the manufacturer actually makes it.Best place to get this information is not Google. 'Breakers don't necessarily trip on overload'? Sorry, but this is BS. Yes, they do. The timing of the trip depends on the overload percentage. This is one of the two fundamental jobs of a circuit breaker (better known as an 'overcurrent protection device'). The second is to trip on a short circuit. That's it. Most people, even many electricians', have little clue to how the simplest of circuit breakers - the thermal-magnetic type - works; thinking that a 20A breaker should trip instantly at 20A. They don't. They are not supposed to. The issues with FP Stab-lok breakers are publicly documented and backed up by reams of scientific and legal evidence. They are killers. You are better off sticking pennies in your fuse box. You posted it yourself:

single pole 1/2 width: 15% failure rate (25/159)
single pole full width: 7% failure rate (4/53)

From 17 random panels, this is an almost unbelievable failure rate. Counterfeit breakers made in China are likely exponentially better than this.Yes, the empiric evidence (and calculated heat-dissipation tables of the insulation) from about 1890 through 1957 is quite ample. The empirical evidence has been borne out by J. H. Neher and M. H. McGrath (N-M), over 50 years ago, in 1957 - which many people in the electrical industry consider the most important scientific 'paper' ever published in this field (excluding pure physics based works); The Neher-McGrath equation allows actual calculation of heat dissipation in wires. To this date, N-M has not been proven wrong. The body of work put together by Neher & McGrath, is so important that all electrical equipment products are designed with this in mind; all electric codes are written with this as a basis. Wires and circuit breakers are fundamentally sized to work together with Neher-McGrath calculations as their basis. In fact, the ampacity tables in the NEC are not written by the NFPA - they are taken from IEEE standard for insulated power cable ampacities which contains the original tables produced by Neher-McGrath.

Anyone (like me) who regularly does electrical (selective) coordination studies, can easily see why one can't use a 14 AWG cable with a 20A breaker. Simply place the breaker trip-curve on the same chart with the wire damage curve. You will see that the breaker does not protect the wire, anywhere in the graph. Which means no matter what the overload, the wire insulation can be damaged, before the breaker trips - if the breaker trips (as the wire will be damaged with an overload of 16 to 19 amps, but the 20A breaker will not trip.)

One can use science and the electric code which is an embodiment of it; or one can take guesses, save a few dollars, and burn down their house. 14AWG conductors are not safe to carry 20 amps. I have seen 'empiric' evidence myself, on many occasions; where some assw|pe replaced a 15A breaker with a 20A breaker because it was tripping. Wonder of wonders, but everywhere two of the cables crossed or ran in parallel; the wiring insulation was burned right off of the wire, exposing the bare hot & neutral conductors. (Does that count?) These people were millimeters from fires burning down their house; and required all the wiring ripped out and replaced; and were more than happy to pay up, when I showed them the wire and explained how lucky they were. (Not to mention how much fun I had hacking open their walls.)

Further reading.

FYI - those sharp ones here will note the new table that appears in the 2011 NEC in Appendix B, in which calculations were done for that rare case where Type-NM cables are placed in conduit. Ampacities have been reduced from those in table 310.15(B)(16). Neher-McGrath strikes again!