Shop Time w/T.W. Friends. Where is your wallet…..poll

...I'm kind of curious what the house panel looks like...I'm guessing we won't be seeing a pic of that.

 

Shit man I’m a master electrician and I don’t want to post a pic of mine either!!

I didn’t wire it though….

 

Mine is pretty good, but some of the control cabinets at work ohhhhhh boy...

 

Where I am...

 

It doesn’t look too bad, I’m pretty sure an actual electrician installed the panels. The barn power was probably a complete hack job from the first owner who lost this place to foreclosure in ‘08.
The circuit that the A/C and barn are on is the top right "Down Unit" 60 AMP breaker.

Missing from the second pic is the wiring for a 50 AMP 240v outlet I installed in the last open space for my welder.

 

Looks way better than the outside panel for sure!! It’s a pretty neat looking panel I think.

 

You can't just go adding grounds, you need individual continuous paths back to the service entrance ground and the service entrance neutral. 4 wires: L1, L2, N, G

Remove the barn wiring from the AC disconnect.

Put a weatherproof J box on the side of the house for the barn circuit spliced to a new 4 conductor cable running to the house breaker box and a proper sized (for the wire) 240 volt breaker.

In the barn, adding a small 8 position breaker box like the one below is only about $30 at Slowes, note you would have to add a ground buss bar for a few dollars more plus buy a few breakers.

This would probably be about a $100 job for the materials.

Edit: Just saw the panel pictures, you will need a couple of tandem breakers to make some space.

 

Agree, 2 different guys did the jobs.

With that barn circuit on a 60 amp breaker the lighter wire could be glowing in the dark and the breaker wouldn't trip...

 

I knew it was gonna be bad when I 1st saw the pic. But damn! A 60a breaker!!!?

 

Thank you both. I went by and talked to my parents yesterday afternoon and thought a lot about what every one said, as Rusty said I felt it out, and watched my dad. At his age and health, he’s fine the way he is and doesn’t need me beating him down. I realized today he raised 2 sons that turned out okay with both his parents being killed in a car wreck when he was 12. I’m glad I’ve grown in life and raising my kids better than what I had. That’s all we can do, better our lives and our kids, if possible.

 

Looking good!

 

There’s neutral and ground wires attached on both sides to both bars, is that something you can do? You can see the naked twisted aluminum wire attached at top right breaker. There’s two of them.

 

Took my little 12’ trailer to get tin today for the chicken coop. Storage building is huge.

 

was in the past, is still considered a single point of bonding
separate is the new best practice standard

 

It’s not on a 60, that’s what feeds the line side of the fuse enclosure. Both the barn and a/c unit are on 35 amp fuses.
Which is too much for the UF going to the barn as we discussed earlier.

 

If that main breaker is the first disconnecting means the neutral is bonded anyways. Like it looks to be in this pic.

 

Where do you get the double breakers, and can you get them for any type of breaker? Does it matter which type of breakers you put in a panel? I've mostly got Type QP breakers with a few Type OAF breakers. I looked in Lowes a couple years ago, but I couldn't find any that match the types in my panel. I did find one in HD but it was a different Type and it didn't look like it would fit. I want to add a switch for my generator, but the lack of space on my panel is an issue. I either need to add a subpanel or find some of those tandem breakers to fit my panel. I can live without power in the barn for the time being. The Generator is out there if I need to power something. If I put a priority on them, I'd want the Gen set switch more than the barn power.

Though if I can accomplish both would be cool.

I don't understand what that means...
Have I said I hate messing with electricity? I do... I still mess with it from time to time, but I don't like it. It's like learning calculus

 

On the door of the panel there will be sticker telling which type of breakers are listed to be installed.
It is a Siemens panel, find an electrical supply house carrying the brand and they will be able to help you.
You can probably find them online too.

 

@KRAMERICA
Looks like a type QP breaker, check the door sticker.

Like this:

https://www.simplybreakers.com/coll...s/products/q2020?_pos=12&_fid=112c6450a&_ss=c

 

Basically the easy way to tell if it’s the first discounting means would be to go look at your meter outside. If it’s just a meter with no breaker, or disconnect of some sort, than more than likely your 200amp main in the panel is your first disconnecting means, which means it’s a main panel, and fine for the neutral and ground to be bonded at this point. It would be different in a new construction scenario, but there’s no point in going into the weeds on that right now. If you look next to the hex lug on the white wire on the side closest to the breaker, there looks to be a green flat head/robertson screw, which will be the main bonding screw. Any sub panel you run from this panel should have 4 wires like Rusty said.