TOPIC: Electrical Questions

This house was built in 1957.

The main panel was blocked by a cabinet and I could not review.

My questions are:

First sub panel has aluminum wires used as a grounds. Does the ground aluminum have the same issues as the other aluminum wiring?

Second sub panel. Are the ground connections proper? There is only one bar where the main neutral is and there are the ground connections attached.

Third. The FPE sub designated for the A/C. Does this have the same issue as other FPE boxes.

Thanks

If I see what I think I see, well those are secondary grounds, but still should not be hooked up to the neutral bar.

I see BX with BX connectors. That is your ground. The small aluminum wires that I referred to as secondary grounds look like the thin ground wire that runs within the BX. If so, it should have been wrapped around the BX and inserted into the BX connector.

I also see what looks like black electrical tape wrapped around the wires coming from some of the BX connectors. If so, it looks like the electrician ran out of Red Heads to protect the wires.

In picture one, I see a green and a copper. They are both grounds. I also see a black and a white feeding off a double breaker. If the white is being used as a hot leg and not a neutral, it should be wrapped with black tape.

On second look, it seems that the green wire is nutted to a white wire. If it is indeed a neutral, and it is not the initial shutoff, it should not be tied to the ground.

Dave - I just saw this.  Too bad the main was covered...  that may have been interesting.

I agree with Steven's commentary.

The problem with aluminum wiring is that it gets brittle with heat and used as a ground it probably won't be a problem.  The screws have to be tightened periodically though.  In addition, the FPE box there is not the same as the Stab-lok box.  But the breaker used there is the bad breaker used in those boxes - they have tripping issues.  Also, the rust is another thing that should be addressed.  An electrician looking at that might recommend total replacement.

Better late then never Jay.

Thanks for the responses.