wrote in message
...
On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:31:13 -0500, "Robert Green"
wrote:

Trip the main.
Certainly adding supplimental bars is a better way to go but don't put
neutrals on suplimental bars, only grounds. If you put a neutral on
the supplimental bars you are putting circuit current through the
metal can and the green bonding screw.
(that is 250.6 for you code guys)

Not sure I understand this. This is a very old (well circa 1981) panel.
I
have a photograph but I think the Usenet police forbid posting same here.
It looks like a supplemental bar would screw into the two existing bars
and
wouldn't contact anything except the existing bars. This is old,
ungrounded
wiring. The panel was a "heavy up" added so that the buyer could qualify
for an FHA sale. Next time I go downstairs, I'll copy all the important
info.


If you can find a kit that piggybacks on the neutral bus you can
connect neutral wires to it but most supplimental kits just screw to
the enclosure in factory tapped holes. That is fine for ground wires
but you don't want neutral wires on that kind of bus. It puts circuit
current through the metal enclosure.

I see. The bus bar that I am hoping to find should be a piggy back type
that screws into the existing bus bars, essentially adding another "tier" of
holes and setscrews. It doesn't connect to the panel enclosure, but seems
to be electrically isolated from it. It would seem that the screws that
hold the new bus bar to the old two would be able to carry a lot of current
but I believe I will take a large piece of wire to connect the two bars as
advised previously. I'm just hoping I can find something to fit a 26
year-old circuit panel.

--
Bobby G.