On Fri, 7 May 2004 16:28:52 -0700, "frank" wrote:

IIRC current NEC requires breaker maker must be the same
as panel maker. No more mix and match different production.

Licensed electrician will not touch a panel with mixed breakers.
At least according to my father-in-law a long-term industrial
electrician.

Well, around here a Building Inspector will not sign off on a permit
unless the breakers are approved for use in the panel. There are a
few special cases where a major manufacturer makes a tested breaker
for use in a rival panel.

When a maker gets bought out (like Siemens bought I-T-E,
Crouse-Hinds & Murray) they can mark the new breakers as Siemens to
reflect the ownership change, but the new "Pushmatic" breakers still
carry the old brand names, are still the same design, and are
acceptable to use in old I-T-E panels.

When we find mixed breakers that don't belong in that can, we simply
swap them out as needed. Not too expensive.

Where it gets expensive is when some dope modifies something.
Example: Chopping off part of the tinned aluminum busbar stab in a
SquareD "Homeline" panel with side-cutters, so they can make a Murray
or Challenger breaker work on them. You have to replace the whole
busbar "guts" of the panel, or it will go bad and burn up - the
aluminum oxidizes like crazy where exposed, and the cancer soon runs
under the tinning.

In the case of third party equipment, for example Milbank or Unicorn
meter pedestals for running irrigation clocks and streetlights, the
panels are often tested and marked as approved for use with several
different brands of breakers - the pedestal maker is independent and
does not make breakers.

Why is Common Sense so uncommon? ;-P

-- Bruce --

--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
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