Thomas D. Horne, FF EMT wrote:
wrote:
Advise your friends that living with such an outdated and even
jury-rigged system just isn't a smart thing to do. Urge them to bring
things up to code ASAP. What you have described so far is rather scary.

Joe

provided it was a well done job theres nothing really unsafe about
adding a switch to a circuit although I would of probably just used the
breaker as a switch


I disagree. That switch should have been two pole so as to open both
ungrounded conductors simultaneously. The breaker should also have been
two pole. As for the absence of a ground conductor that is a serious
omission.

While I agree, what would bother me even more would be having the
standard 110 outlets for a 220 circuit so any random 110V appliance
could have been plugged in by the unsuspecting. This would make me
suspect the heat tapes/whatever the former homeowner used were the
tailed variety and weren't 220V rated which could have been a little
spooky to say the least. As for the ground, from that standpoint, I
guess probably they weren't supplied with a ground, anyway. But,
overall, while it undoubtedly served its purpose and apparently
(obviously) they got away with it w/o a serious problem, if the current
owner is going to use the idea it ought to be wired correctly in all
aspects.