Am I better than the electrician?

[RedVise]

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Maybe you don't care, but I do. I do this for a living and the customer gets charged a premium for my services. The least I can do is spend a few extra minutes and make the panel look like a professional wired it. That doesn't mean I bend perfect right angles in every wire and comb them out so there are absolutely no twists, but it does mean I group them and run them into the breaker neatly. I'm not seeking perfection, but I want a clean install.

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If I call for an electrician, this is the guy I want to see walking thru the door.
I did copier service for 8 years, scaffold building in a chemical refinery for 6 years, either job, it just takes a little more time to do a good job than an average one.

 

[foolishpride]

Now lets see a pic of a panel you made up with STRANDED wire and no zip ties. You're assuming everyone uses Romex.....

CustomManCaves must be a Romex Jockey if he's never used wire ties in an electrical panel. Wire ties make panels with THHN wire in them look neat and professional.

 

[JHunter]

Electricians showed up today (finally).
Here's why I'd vote against using extra/excess bare wire to group the wires together: The electrician had to remove some of the bare wires that had been used as make-shift 'zip ties', so he could remove the main line which had to be replaced. When he grabbed the copper 'zip tie' with his pliers, it was live. Keep in mind, this was a scrap piece of wire wrapped around the outside of a bundle of wires meant to just organize the wires. The electrician who did the original work wrapped the copper wire so tightly around the live wires, that it broke through the insulation, and itself became hot. Quite the shock (no pun intended) to the electrician when the 'zip tie' was live. Needless to say, he cut the main power, removed all the other pieces of wire used as 'zip ties' and repaired the cut sections of live wire. Also had to replace the main feeder line from the meter into the house, because aside from the hole left from the screw, there was a cut in the insulation from one of the copper 'zip ties'.
Again, I'm no electrician - but after today, I'd vote against using the extra pieces of wire as 'zip ties' and stick with plastic, or being neat enough to not need them.
Just thought I'd close the loop on this one.

 

[sdowney717]

I likely would have put some black gasket maker on the wire for insulation and then after it set, wrapped it with rubber self vulcanizing tape.
those feed wires should have been first into the box and pressed in a way so they were against the backside of the box away from the panel screws.
Alternatively, the box could have been flipped so the feed wires dont have to run the inside length of the box to the main breaker, just entering and forming a 'Y' to the breaker located at the bottom. Which also makes for more room in the box and looks neater.

So which direction do you install panels?

 

[JHunter]

Alternatively, the box could have been flipped so the feed wires dont have to run the inside length of the box to the main breaker, just entering and forming a 'Y' to the breaker located at the bottom. Which also makes for more room in the box and looks neater.

Thats what the guys said that showed up to fix it. They were less than impressed with whoever did the install when the house was being built. What scares me is the miles of wire behind the drywall that I can't see.

 

[Gooch]

Thats what the guys said that showed up to fix it. They were less than impressed with whoever did the install when the house was being built. What scares me is the miles of wire behind the drywall that I can't see.

I did a service install on a 3 floor condo complex. 18 units per building, 6 per floor. Each unit was Pre-Fab and set, the company that built them did all the wiring, we were just hired to do the service, so the panels were all made up and each panel was bottom fed but was top breaker feed. was a huge PITA.

 

[nate379]

Not sure what those are going to, but in my panel I have a few welder outlets that I wired with 8/2 wire. One wire was black, the other white. I just put a piece of red tape on the white wire.

I also don't know why you have white wires going into your breakers????

 

[Rudeboy 1]

No wire-ties required when you do it right. There are plastic bands for grouping wires.

Very nice looking job. Although, zip-ties would have accomplished the same thing.

 

[Rudeboy 1]

I do it all the time, no zip ties. I could care less if every wire is at a right angle or is perfectly straight. Means nothing in the way the panel performs or if a breaker trips when its supposed to. The first time someone goes in to add something its going to be all screwed up anyway

If you're running mwbc in pipe and you're on the 2008, you need to group them by some means whether zip-tie or not.