This Old Fused Electrical Panel is FLAWLESS!

it's a very moist environment but they've been power washing in here so I'm not sure that this is a permanent situation but it does have that super must that's uh that's thick [Music] hey it's Joe walsman CEO master electrician of Jefferson Electric I have five things on the docker for today and the first one is this it's a 26 000 project I bumped into the owner in a coffee shop and it was at a Tipping Point The Tipping Point is this what are we going to do with the electrical gear what's the status how do we approach it so I said how about this 250 bucks I'll show up we'll do a thorough inspection I'll document it and report it to you and you'll know exactly what the current state and future life of that equipment is he said let's do that so I am having one more transaction with what we call monkey's paw where they have spent 250 bucks with me to do one little thing when you start spending money with somebody it's easier to spend more money so I'm getting my foot in the door because they haven't selected us yet as the electrical contractor for this project but I'm working on it so this is step one today let's take a look inside and I've got my apprentices Amos and Titus with me today so should go smoothly interesting three phase 400 amp overhead it's cabinet and riser relatively new I've got no issues with that neutral still marked still has tape on it big locks on the 400 amp disconnect but also quite new his conduit put a lot of work into that I'd like to put a strap right there because we are about 10 feet between supports look at a tree growing up out of this put a lot of pressure on that conduit thankfully it's been addressed there's the meter down there conduit here's the lb let's take a look inside with a gap I'm thinking rodent entry it's got a gasket but we just gotta close that up so figure out why it's bulging ah I've got a split mulch looks like probably a split bolt since it's all taped up so one thing I don't like about a bulging lb you see how much space there is a mouse can totally get in there and then they're inside into the panel and they're in your conduit and they're nesting and they found a potentially somewhat warm place because current flow can create a little bit of heat warm place to Nest so let's think about what to do about that this is not that old out here if we get a good feel from the overall system we'll probably leave that connection as opposed to re-pulling wire from here to there but um might open it up take it apart look at it and put it back together or repo okay it's a very moist environment but they've been power washing in here so I'm not sure that this is a permanent situation but it does have that super must that's uh that's thick and obviously signs of rust on the sold equipment this is my first time laying eyes on it and it's uh it's old what can I say I'm going to check with the others to make sure that they're okay if I turn off power right now so I'm gonna um turn off power here in a couple of minutes once I get these opened up have you uh Jason was saying he had thrown some switches and so we've thrown the actual panel Hebrew the uh two phase okay every day every time we cut power it's been outside after disconnect got it do you guys have the locks on there is that your okay there are some padlocks on that disconnect right now really yeah so there's a padlock on there I'll call Jason and verify that we didn't put one on there I have the key to all of our catalogs so if it works okay interesting but as far as those these in here it's only been the actual breaker panel and that Too Faced got it so status update you guys are already under contract obviously yeah just like get the ceiling painted nice so we're going to ceiling painted they're gonna seal that smell in our guys under the pressure washer slab use a deodorizer on it steel slabs Framing and whatnot okay do you know if this is local or out of state ownership or what that looks like okay um first time you've worked with them or is this your first time nice and um did they purchase are they leasing this facility very nice trying to think through just like what that means for longevity and investment in the space and I know that she has a current office okay I mean she's doing a lot of work to it I hope that she wants to keep it yeah it sounds like she's in that position That's Heavy kill one kill two as long as it doesn't kill me uh she's gonna have to make a value decision is it something like and I'm just thinking out loud I'll organize my thoughts as I go this equipment is going to have some lead time what does slowing down the project look like what what's the impact to her does she have like a firm open date did she have an overflow of clientele from location one that she's trying to okay project back probably two months so that was already a big hurdle dealing with uh the city the state and dealing with Homeland Security was right a huge setback so I don't know if she's necessarily too fond of being more setbacks but she also knows that the situation that the world's end with lead times and material calls so she's flexible in a way that's good that's good like my big thing is Elite what needs to stay what and you're asking the right question so can we operate on this equipment in the time being safely can we what's the cost of and lead time to slot this project in at a later date let's say six month lead time for sake of discussion um what is regular business hours look like are we coming in on a Saturday and doing a start to finish swap of equipment what's the layout of the new equipment what are the power needs I think we'll be able to get a good synthesized big picture and then again can we open with this equipment and then cut over a couple of months in so we're not delaying the whole project what's the start what's the projected finish time for this as it stands now take your time I'll keep poking around I mean this looks good it's brilliant like people look at this stuff and you're like what's all this crap you know well yeah the cabinet's got some rest but look how bright those connections are there's no white chalky powder no corrosion it's it's actually pretty beautiful now the question is in a moist environment like this where there is this much corrosion how much internal deterioration and the breaker components that you can't access and can't replace how much has there been but the at least the visible connections look really good okay by any means July 14th yeah so you can almost guarantee without substantial Expediting fees like 10 20 000 that this equipment's not going to be in by then so the question is how do we get it safely across the July 14th Finish Line and then plan for something future and maybe you know sometimes I get budgets are maxed out so maybe future is 12 to 24 months not six months right um but if we can get the pieces together in front of you guys you can make the big picture decision then I think we're we're dollars and cents ahead there now this is interesting I've not seen one of these before it's got this this is the Cleveland switchboard company why that thumb screw is there I don't know but it says on I'm just gonna pull on it let's see what happens there it goes hinge door fuse cabinet it's pretty cool the fact that this fuse is not Breakers actually helps our cause fuses are extremely extremely reliable and look how clean that is I mean look at the quality of the connections there they had a good tight fit look how look how bright and shiny that this copper stabs are I mean they look like they've been wire brushed in fact wow I'm actually really impressed really impressed wow well done Cleveland [Music] yeah good action I mean you can just feel it good action that when you're flipping a breaker you know you get that snap snap I'm not going to flip any anything on right now you can flip something off a little click well this is similar you can just feel that press fit you can feel and sense the tension is that so let's just go through let's just run through them on off um I do need to take pictures as we go so I'm using company Cam and I'll show you what the app looks like at the end of this but I'm going to carefully document everything we've created about 1500 company cam projects over the course of the last one year it has been the easiest software to adopt as a company it is used throughout our organization we house both documents and site images they're simple to mark up and so everybody is going in our organization with two clicks is going to be able to see exactly everything that I saw here today all right let's open it all up take those pictures take a careful look super happy there are fuses not Breakers I really didn't even know what I was looking at this one's feeding the 200 amp panel on my left that's the old utility CT cabinet that's some exterior disconnect that is not required because sorry that's an interior disconnect it's not required because we have the exterior disconnect but it's not hurting anything again as long as it's in good shape foreign [Music] [Applause] two definitely a tight fit three four five six seven cool so as much as I like span panels I do have a tremendous appreciation for what I'm looking at here this is um it's in great condition it was really well made I haven't found anything yet that's broken down we'll be looking at the connections each of these individual connections could be that some of these insulating blocks have cracked or snapped or you just don't know what you're going to find could have been harsh treatment of some kind or another at one time or another so just uh 250 bucks essentially that buys two hours of my time to look carefully through here and figure out what's going on and make a recommendation and then if it fails in the middle of the night you know who's getting the phone call appointments because the electrical gear that you recommended failed you know there's some responsibility there but the same token I'm not the kind of person to come in here and be like you have to spend now I mean just ballpark budget cost to replace what we're looking at here new 400 amp disconnect indoor New 400 amp distribution panel new 200 amp three-phase panel what kind of cost are you looking at drop your drop your thoughts and I'll respond at some point in the future here as well um it actually looks really good even though it's as old as dirt um so I'm just going to go through and check everything but you can see like on these copper connections here they almost look like they're wire brushed yeah I mean look it's like pure so the Press fit is nice and tight the fact that it's fuses not Breakers is good because Breakers suffer more in a damp environment fuses are just bulletproof very reliable so my thought process and I was talking to Kyle yes um is this lead time on equipment like this so lead time budget overall project budget and timing or all a question mark So lead time we're going to be six months plus for any 400 amp distribution panel if this is the only thing we replace this is the old AES cabinet no longer required we don't have to have that disconnect because we have the exterior disconnect out there so we could eliminate now we've got that trough there and the conduit going down I haven't figured that out but we could at least eliminate potentially that disconnect this cabinet and then just be replacing this one and keeping that one and we could do this one six months down the road or whenever timing and budget align if that's of Interest I know sometimes funds have to be recouped after a big project so maybe it's 24 months but what I've seen right now is this thing will last and serve for another 24 months that's that's not a question in my mind yet but I'm going to check all the little connections and supports and just see if anything's cracked broken missing first impression really good yeah that was kind of Our Hope was you know from this panel out we basically want to redo everything which is you said this panel out this one out cool it was pulled apart I wonder if you tapped it over I would have he tap that coupling over it I think we I think Matt tapped that coupling over it yeah it kind of looks like it moved but it was apart so yeah maybe they already messed up gotcha yeah this PVC run doesn't have any Expansion Joints and it's pretty long so that's prone to happen and it might be a just a matter of kind of getting it back back centered not to say it couldn't pull apart again depending on how where the tension is and how it pulls especially when it gets cold is when it shrinks right you know how I was taking all these thumb screws off that that doesn't have anything to do with anything it just looked like some kind of I should have just investigated the first one I got carried away that doesn't have anything to do with anything it just helps hold this component tree to the door of the cabinet so don't don't pull those off time to check the connections all all down the side these are de-energized right now um yes that's correct because these fuse doors are open oh uh that's why we check them look at that look at that all right now the question is how do I even get a screwdriver in there to tighten that down try some way to remove this door but you can back those out and any lines here like conduits and supported and all wonky on the top of that box there but ah action seems to be crisp water through the conduit just to drip that's probably from we'll see where that conduit goes that's probably just from all the power washing and stuff I don't have any concerns about that panel Rusty son of a gun that one went uh [Music] [Music] all that for nothing looks perfect got no no issues get bug boy back in here he'd like that along with the Cockroaches all right oh yes you only go so far yeah technically a code violation must open at least 90 degrees well let's see what's going on in there let's just see about pulling a fuse here okay so that I'm gonna grab my tester make sure that Deanna is it sure looks like it pulled out all right a couple of couple of tools here oh that's not a conduit that's just a support that's what that is so it just comes in goes through still be nice to see if there are any joints in there also pretty clean all right nasty energized let's just pull it up here to the top side just unknown live circuits before and after use 126 cool best what we expected but good to be certain pull this out oh wait ah yeah that's not bad bad at all those covers are captive so as soon as you throw that on there's an internal mechanism that engages and you can't pull them open let's wrestle that cover off see if there are any joints it's cool this has been field welded it's a custom trough it's been welded from this cabinet to the cabinet next door yeah we've checked a few sizes everything's good wiring terminations that looks fine so it's time to close it back up I think the consensus is this thing will last us for a while how long it's hard to say but it's come so far is it an expense that could be deferred 24 months yeah yeah good job Cleveland um finished putting the covers on and then we'll throw that switch back on [Music] beautiful can I have that lighting everything's wet in there but it looks like it's just recently wet because nothing's corroded yeah yeah that's it okay okay well let's just drive the bus real quick anybody have paper towel napkins we don't need much so okay maybe the moisture is just really at the top [Music] so our scope of work on the bigger project the 26 000 job that smell is gonna be from here onward and [Music] this disconnect is still off it's kind of just crud in there put a bunch of mouse poo too something nope hang that up so all this will get thoroughly addressed as we pull new circuits and home runs it seems like the moisture is just really at the top everything else is starting to okay yeah it is self-resolves up here it didn't need much down here it's fine foreign okay we'll take a look inside you're going to like the little craftsmanship you see the conduits are entering top and bottom of this panel tub and so they really didn't have much opportunity for how to replace the tub in a cost-effective manner kind of have to cut all the conduits way back set a trough top and bottom but this is a creative solution and I feel like they whoever did it did put some care into it so I got some [Music] casual admiration for what's been done here so this is actually a pretty common practice is a lot of electrical panels are installed in hallways in like school facilities government facilities where they're like a concrete block corridors and things The Oaks Academy has this you know it's just all over and so these are embedded these old panels are embedded in concrete so they actually replace them is just Insanity because you'd have to then you have rigid conduits coming in top bottom I mean it's if you found one that was the exact same size and just slid into that opening how in the world would you ever get the the old one out you know it's just like it's brain damage is what they call that so this is a very common practice drop in the comments whether you love it hate it I've done it before the real big question we walked in here with was can we keep the equipment my assessment is it's actually surprisingly in fantastic shape Kyle thinks we scrape it prime it paint it so it doesn't give any rise to discussions regarding the sketchy age of the facility with employees it really looks fantastic inside I think we've got 24 months plus and we can kick this expense down the road for the customer we're going to take scope of work here onward throughout the entire facility that'll be brand new it's just this equipment here so I'm saying for now we're in good shape but if you've got eyes and ears that are different than mine drop it in the comments I want to hear from you and subscribe ah to Electric grow Academy for real skills to make real money

Channel: Electric Pro Academy

Views: 40,424

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Id: P-W6k-q6I7U

Length: 23min 49sec (1429 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 23 2023