Emergency Service Call in BFE - QUICK ELECTRICAL SERVICE PANEL SWAP

[Music] what's going on friends another day another dollar um so today's job is a very simple one but i'm gonna make good money off of it so i have uh i just got a call from some guy that owns a ranch um here in texas we got ranches all over the damn place so this guy's selling his ranch somebody else is buying it and there was an inspection report and the only thing for the entire ranch was at one of the buildings there's no dead front on the panel and the the guy that's buying the ranch is like it's a super serious problem this has to happen and i think though the guy that's selling is like man if this kid that's buying this ranch thinks that's a big problem he's in a world of hurt when he realizes that this is a ranch you know like that means some things basically ranches are just rough places they're out in the middle of [ __ ] all nowhere there's usually no codes for anything most of the stuff on ranches are just done by the people that live on them uh you know like for the whole thing for the dead front to be missing i get it you know like i'm not gonna sit here as a master electrician and tell people it's okay to not have dead fronts on your panels uh you need to have them you know somebody can get shocked but it's just kind of one of those things that like ranchers or like texas boys look at each other and like like this is this is a big problem every ranch in the world i bet every ranch in texas is missing some of the panels laying on the [ __ ] ground you know like whatever it still works tire rope to it get our cattle to pull it up we're good to go so anyways i'm out here um and he was like i need this this is a priority i need this right now we're trying to close in two weeks so i need you out there today and i'm like well i mean it's an old panel the likelihood of me finding this dead front is gonna be pretty slim finding it right now but i was like if you want to pay my emergency rate you know for me to go out there right this second i will and he's like i don't give a [ __ ] what it costs just go out there so i'm like bet so this is it the first thing that i had to do was try to find a dead front so like i'm way out in the middle of nowhere just making calls to the local supply houses there's not very many to choose from and for those of you that don't know this most supply houses specialize in like a specific brand because they work out deals a lot to get better pricing but they a lot of times have non-competes so they can't have multiple different brands to get better pricing so it's silly i know but like some of them will be just a square d distributor and some of them will just be you know like ge or eating or something like that so i called around uh 45 minutes in every single direction didn't matter uh there were three supply houses that i could have chose um but i did find one that was siemens then i asked for the dimensions if they had a panel that was anywhere near like remotely the same size and they didn't like everything was either a little bit bigger a little bit smaller so there's just no way that i was gonna get a dead front so i called the owner and i said look the only option if i have to fix this today is i need to go buy another panel and put a different panel in and redo this entire service and i'm going to have to call the power company make sure they're cool with me disconnecting power and he's like just do whatever you have to do so this is me doing what i have to do [Music] typically as an electrician you're not going to be taking out meters or putting meters in that's usually the utility company's property it's the utility companies liability and they're the ones that do it but in this instance i did call and i asked and they were fine with it they're like you're a master electrician you're taking on the liability for this so we're comfortable with it that's fine so what i think is really important when you're taking out a meter if you do have to do this is making sure that the load is off don't ever disconnect a meter when all of the breakers are still on so if you ever like disconnecting wires you know like i don't know so you're at like a switch and the lights are on in the room and you forget to shut a switch off and for some reason you're working on this thing live which you probably shouldn't be doing but you say you are you know that that moment when you disconnect joints where the wires will spark right because there's a load on that's why that huge like you keep touching them together that's why that's happening is because there's actually a load on and it's connecting it so when you shut the light off and touch those together you don't have that same thing well imagine that we're not talking like a 15 amp circuit but imagine we're talking about 100 amp panel or 200 amp panel doing the same thing trying to connect or disconnect that could be a huge discharge or big arc so make sure that you turn off the main disconnect so the the premises is not under load now if you notice this panel is unique in that it has lugs in the bottom of it and in the top so a lot of times when you're messing around with panels the breakers are on the main bus bars right so you got your conductors that leave the sides and kind of go wherever they go it's not often that you have a panel where there's huge lugs on the bottom where you have these huge conductors going in the bottom they call this a feed through panel and it's specifically designed so that it can be used as a main disconnect at a service or if you want to be able to at the main disconnect outside wherever your services if you want that one handle to be able to de-energize that panel as well as another panel down the line you can have a common means of disconnection so they use the feed-through panel in this instance because they needed some kind of main disconnect but they also wanted the ability to have some circuits nearby the other alternative is just to have put a main disconnect switch and not have any room for breakers so it's just another method of doing it but i thought that was interesting because a lot of people don't know what a feed-through panel is so check this out you want to see texas these are nails this thing is just nailed in place two nails send it now to my uh benefit it's a little bit of a saving grace here is that the electricians that installed this or the farmer or whoever didn't glue any of the pvc so i had the flexibility basically to twist that 90 and take everything apart as i needed to the the actual uh male adapter where it was attached to the panel uh that was glued but down in the ground where the 90 was and where the couplings were none of that was actually glued so um taking a panel apart when you have conductors coming in the top and it's fixed in position and you've got conductors that are leaving the bottom oftentimes it sucks because you need to like lift one up and you've got all these thick conductors coming from the top and the bottom so just trying to get this panel out of there is a really big pain in the butt so it was a huge saving grace that i could just kind of kick this pvc over a little bit and twist everything and get it out and then when i put it all back together i could do the same thing so if you can see same panel eight spaces feed through 200 amps just a smaller much smaller panel siemens eight space 16 circuit 200 amp on this siemens panel the cool thing is it actually comes with crown busses like uh some brands schneider square d m for some [ __ ] reason we get your panels and you don't put ground bars like that's the stupidest [ __ ] ever i have to go to the supply house if i forgot or if a customer bought a panel or something they're not gonna know to get the [ __ ] ground bus so you gotta go make a trip go back just to get the ground bus something that should come in the panel and like most brands do all right doing this be careful not to put the wrong knockouts out and you end up pulling too many out because then you got to go to the supply house and get a reducing washer call it uh five and three eighths [Music] now a little bit of a pro tip when you're working with pvc one thing i recommend is making sure that you glue both sides so when you put two pieces of pvc conduit together don't just glue one side and then shove the the other you know end of it on because oftentimes you'll just push that glue away so if you glue both sides and you goop it on like glue the hell out of it if you glue both sides and you shove them together you're still kind of just pushing that stuff but you have a little bit better chance of still getting glue on both sides that glue starts to dry pretty fast so a lot of it does stay on that inner edge when you start pushing them together [Music] one thing that used to confuse me when i was a young lad coming up through the trades is what is a feeder and what is the service entrance conductor what's the difference between them because a lot of times you'll see in the code book feeders and service entrance conductors they're like side by side in a lot of parts of code or like something that will apply to a feeder will also apply to a service entrance conductor so i was like what is that so i figured we should go through uh open up your code books please open up your code books if you're watching this anyways just open up the code books i'll actually teach you some things um all right if you go into chapter one article 100 where all the definitions are uh we have the definition of feeder and for a feeder it says all circuit conductors between the service equipment the source of a separately derived system or other power supply source and the final branch circuit over current device so that means that any conductors that are from the service not the meter encoded also defines that the service is not the meter the service is the main disconnect the first disconnecting means of a premises wire wiring system so from that first disconnecting means leaving there and going to let's say like another panel and going to a main breaker inside of that panel that whole thing is a feeder it's feeding something it's not entering the service so a service entrance conductor i bet it has something to do with entering the service we have two different definitions one is overhead and one is underground because there's two different types of electrical services so let's just read the overhead the service conductors between the terminals of the service equipment where we were just talking about that main disconnect and a point usually outside of the building clear of building walls where joined by tap or splice to the service dropper overhead service conductors so basically if you look at them the main service disconnecting means the stuff coming into the service from the utility that's your service entrance conductors the stuff leaving the service leaving that main disconnect going to another thing another load that is a feeder but it's usually between a breaker and another breaker so if you have say like a transformer right where we've got feeders that leave that main disconnect and they go into a another disconnect and then they go down into a transformer and then they leave the transformer and they go over to another panel to the main breaker of that panel that all of that is still a feeder the whole thing through the transformer everything they're still considered feeders so it's kind of a weird word and that's why it's a little bit ambiguous with the definition but just remember that you're talking about anything prior to the main disconnect or after the main disconnect now i have to put the panel back on the pole and again i'm utilizing the fact that none of this stuff is glued which is a huge saving grace i do go back and glue it once i get everything in place but i'm just trying to feed the bottom and the top you'll notice i'm like i have the panel at like a weird 45 degree angle and trying to just finagle all of it together and then once i get it back in place i kind of just snaps all in place beautifully boom there we go before i strap this whole thing down i'm just going to get my luck ring on bushing on a lot of times you'll forget to put the bushing on and you get everything all made back up and then you're like oh [ __ ] you got to take it all back apart you don't ever want to go too tight with your lock rings or else you'll strip the threading out all right all right trivia time do we always have to use plastic threaded bushings on our conduits aha should you is different than what does it say in electrical code there actually is a difference what i want to know is do you think that it's based off of the conduit size like you know three inch we have to but one inch we don't have to or do you think it's conductor size so like number six conductors don't have to worry about it if they're like two odd conductors we do have to worry about it and whatever your answer is make sure you write the code article don't just say your answer because you think you know it put where it is in the code book cite your sources don't just say some [ __ ] put your code in your answer actually open your book and present an educated intelligible argument all right now i got some who daddy screws never used who daddy screws before these are who daddy screws because whoo daddy they're long i guess wait if that's long i don't have a very good uh gauge of what's wrong they're like two and a half inches there you know who daddy screws [Laughter] put the trusty old level on there [Music] did you all know i used to fly airplanes when i went to college arizona state [Music] uh i have a program at one of their campuses where you could learn how to be a professional pilot now i don't think that i became professional it's very unprofessional pilot i flew planes it was cool like at first it was really cool but uh after a while man seriously i just got bored with it i was like this is this is not as like fun i'm not just free to fly the skies whatever i want there's like a lot of like bureaucracy and [ __ ] that goes along with it [Music] um oh man siemens you're my dog they even all of their screws are slightly uh unscrewed so i can just stick the wires right in there [Music] do we always have to use plastic threaded bushings on our conduits all right so the answer to our trivia time is found in 300.4 in the national electrical code we're looking in the 2020 protection against physical damage 300.4 g fittings it says where raceways contain four awg or larger insulated circuit conductors and these conductors enter a cabinet a box an enclosure or a raceway the conductor shall be protected in accordance with any of the following means one an identified fitting providing a smooth rounded insulating surface like a threaded plastic bushing a listed metal fitting that has smoothly rounded edges that's number two number three separation from the fitting or raceway using an identified insulating material that is securely fastened in place number four threaded hubs or bosses that are an integral part of the cabinet box enclosure or raceway providing a smoothly rounded or flared entry for conductors and the last paragraph says conduit bushings constructed wholly of insulating material shall not be used to secure a fitting or raceway meaning you need to still put a lock ring on you can't just use the bushing i've seen that a lot like a lot of these older 70s house homes and buildings they'll just run the conduit and put a little plastic bushing just come on bro the insulating fitting or insulating material shall have a temperature rating not less than the insulation temperature rating of the installed conductors that's one thing a lot of people don't know that the bushing itself needs to be at the same temperature rating at least as the conductor's insulation rating all right it is the conductor size has nothing to do with conduit size some people will run around saying well for half inch and three quarter conduit you don't have to really worry about it that's not what it is it's conductor size amount of current fault current possible on the conductors huge conductors can have a lot of fault current big old booms so typically with bigger conduits that's why on bigger conduits we have the threaded bushings all right well that's it [Music] we got 248 hot to hot red phase or phase b to neutral we've got 124 phase a or black to neutral we've got 124 ground we got 124 hot to neutral ground hot to neutral and neutral 2 ground zero volts turn the breaker on power should feed through now we should have 248 hot to hot 120 hot to neutral 120 hot to neutral neutral to ground zero hot to ground 120 hot to ground 120. boom daddy all we got to do is uh [Music] put this thing back together [Music] all right let's go home fellas and ladies that is our final product didn't that neat didn't that neat that's pretty neat love you crazy people bye hey before you go make sure that you subscribe helps a brother out don't watch all these all the time sit up here with my pretty face and don't give me that subby i'm all about them subbies also please join the channel helps me out as well if you want to contribute to what we're doing if you want to support the channel we've got three different tiers of membership you can get your name up on the fancy screen or you can get my phone number text me all your crazy electrical questions make sure you hit the thumbs up make sure that you hit the notification bell love you crazy people [Music] this can't music and video

Channel: Electrician U

Views: 104,288

Keywords: electrician, electrical, electricity, dustin stelzer, electrician vlog, residential, electrical vlog, electrician courses, electrical class, electrician class, electrician school, electrical code, service panel, electrical panel, electrical panel installation, electrical panel wiring, electrical panel upgrade, electrical panel replacement, electrical panel explained, how to wire an electrical panel, circuit breaker, electrical wiring, electrical installation, circuit breakers

Id: 4akSfMIvwd4

Length: 21min 30sec (1290 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 05 2021