On May 16, 4:50*pm, wrote:
On Sat, 16 May 2009 15:06:54 -0400, "John Grabowski"



wrote:

"Johnny_A_58" wrote in message
...
Hi all, My Daughter just bought a house that was a mobile home, double
wide, that was
put on a foundation. Outside there is a service entrance panel with a 200A
main breaker.
That feeds into the basement to an empty box where it is bolted to an SE
cable that runs
the width of the house to the rear and up into the kitchen. There she has
a 200A main panel
with all the branch circuits.

I want to finish the basement for her. Assuming there is plenty of juice
(there are 7 spares
in the panel upstairs), here is what I would like to do if it is legal,
safe and compliant with
NEC (in Maryland),

Shut off the Main 200A outside
Undo the bolted "feed thru" in the basement
Rebolt it along with another set of 4ga/4 wires and put another panel
there
to feed the basement.

I know I could just use a subpanel in the basement and feed it from the
kitchen, but
if TWO main panels in parallel is legal, it would save me a lot of wire
($$).
If I can do this, I would use a panel with say a 70A main breaker in it in
the basement
and not just a subpanel with main lugs.

*I'm not sure if I am understanding the entire scope of what you want to do.
I'm thinking that you want to tap off the 200 amp line from the junction box
in the basement with #4 wires. *I haven't read the rules for taps in the
current book yet, but I think that would be acceptable. *You would have to
bring those #4 wires directly into a 70 amp breaker and they would need to
be close to the junction box. *Also the junction box would need to be big
enough for all of the wires. *There are insulated taps that pierce through
the insulation of conductors. *You would not need to take apart the existing
splices and then put them back together and retape them.
There is such a thing as feed through circuit breaker panels in which you
could bring the existing wires into the top of the panel and exit the line
to the kitchen from the side or bottom. *They are more expensive than a
regular panel and I don't recall if they are available in single phase.

When you get the electrical permit from the town for the remodeling ask the
electrical inspector if it is okay. *He will have the final word.

They exist, but you'd never catch me using them. Junk. Fire waiting to
happen.


Which they are you talking about here? If your talking about the
insulating displacing connectors that are used to do hot taps on
larger energized conductors you must have worked with a different type
then I have. I don't recall the brand off the top of my head but they
were quite substantial. They were applied with wrenches and since I
had not seen them previous to the job I had to use them on I checked
them with a non contact thermometer attachment and my Fluke 87 III
meter and found no heating greater then the joined conductors even
with all of the heavier loads turned up so as to draw current. That
doesn't mean I think they're the correct material for this job but I
found nothing wrong with them.

--
Tom Horne