Breaker died...

[dbhost]

The breaker to the front outlet in the shop died. No big deal to change out right?

The service panel is outside.
It has been RAINING.
It continues to rain.
No let up in the rain for at least 5 more days...

Who is the imbecile that decided that it was acceptable to mount the main panel outdoors?

[BobSch]

I've never understood why anyone would want their breaker box outside. Just asking for some prankster to come along and flip the master.

[Eric]

I've never understood why anyone would want their breaker box outside. Just asking for some prankster to come along and flip the master.

That's why there's usually something there that allows a padlock to be used. Not that if someone was motivated enough they still couldn't get into it.

[dbhost]

I've always thought it was incredibly stupid to put the breaker outside, but almost all the homes around here have them outside...

Why was that even allowed by code?

[DallasB]

So Im going to Dickison Texas just by I-45....and its going to rain on me Friday?

[natausch]

I imagine it's strange to have the service panel outside, but almost everywhere the service entrance (and master switch) is located outside.

[dbhost]

I imagine it's strange to have the service panel outside, but almost everywhere the service entrance (and master switch) is located outside.

I've only lived here, in Arizona, and in Oregon where I was with it enough to know what a service panel was... In both Arizona, and Oregon, the service panels were inside...

And it still doesn't answer what my biggest question is... Why put it outside in the first place? What possible advantage could there be aside from keeping the panel close to the meter?

[pelligrini]

Lack of interior open space, or forethought is usually the case.

[dbhost]

Lack of interior open space, or forethought is usually the case.

Gotcha...

No basements either.

[RAFlorida]

Some locations, such as

Winter Haven, Florida, code addresses this and the main must be outside. This is for the firefighters who may have to turn off the power to the house while fighting a fire. But since the main's outside, to save some money, the builder would just locate the circuit breaker panel with a main outside.

[tseavoy]

The house I had in Seattle, built in the early 1900s had the fuse box outside a long way from the meter. It was all green inside. I finally installed a new breaker box inside near the meter at the corner of the house that was closest to the power pole. I also put in an underground service. The box was in the basement. To pick up all the circuits, I had to run wires from the new breaker box to the old fuse box where I had removed all the fuse stuff and put in junction boxes (the house had knob and tube wiring). It fixed a lot of strange things, like turn on one light and another light dims.
It is simple to just add a master cutoff switch outside near the meter if code requires a way to shut off power outside. That's what my current house has.

Tom on Marrowstone

[crokett]

Code actually says no more than 6 motions of the hand to turn power off to or in any one panel. This is why I had to upgrade my main panel. It had 6 breakers in it already. I extended the circuits into a new one that has a main shutoff.

[LCHIEN]

in houston, no basements. the builders tend to run the power line to the closest corner of the house. If this happens to be the garage you'll probably get an indoor breaker box, but if it happens to be the living room, then you'll orobably get the breaker box on an outside wall for esthetic reasons - no one wants a breaker box in their livign room or master bedroom or dining room. If it hapens to be the utility room, then they'll be more likely to put it inside if the wall is accessible (not behind the freezer location for example). You've seen the prices for relocating breaker boxes - can be $500 or more... that's why the electricians won't run the input cable to a better location where it can be indoors; all the extra wiring required to reach the more desirable indoor spot.

Fortunately i have a detached garage, that's the closest location to the utility easement where the power wires are buried.

[dbhost]

Breaker in, still troubleshooting the circuit.

Got the breaker yesterday evening, and swapped it out, could trace power back through the breaker so problem #1 fixed... No power to the GFCI in the garage. WTF? Start looking around the house at outlets I rarely use. Made new discovery...

The one circuit goes to almost all of my "wet zones", meaning outdoor circuits, both bathrooms, and the garage, and of course, the previous owner of the house, at the insistence of the inspector, added GFCIs to both bathrooms and the garage...

So I went through, guest bath, no reset, master bath, reset no problem, then guest bath, then garage... So GFCI #1 in that circuit is the master bath...

Trip to Lowes got a new standard socket and trim plate, the Lowes I went to only had one white heavy duty socket in stock, and I am NOT using the builder grade junk... Replaced the garage outlet, managed to get hot and neutral backwards, redid it, got it squared away... Next step is to remove power again, then pull the GFCI from the guest bath, and replace it with another standard heavy duty outlet and trim plate.

So the fun continues...

The breaker I replaced was without a doubt, BAD, BADDER, BADDEST. The switch simple felt, well... Funny... Clicks to on position, no click to off, felt like pushing on a marshmellow, and the entire breaker tries falling out. Pulled the breaker and found that the bakelite housing was deteriorating, found the breaker below it was in a close to similar state, went to the BORG and got 2 breakers to replace them (better safe than sorry) and swapped them out.

I hate being my own electrician...

[machinistchest]

I have the outdoor box on the back of house next to the shop, It makes it really easy to add circuts by running conduit on the outside walls and then in thru where I need power to the machines.

I know just enough about electricty to be dangerous, however once had a issue with a loose wire (white) on the bar.The guy who wired it grouped to many wires under one set screw. so the breaker for the washing machine would trip once and awile. There is plenty of extra holes on the bar to insert wires ,so I made sure that there were no more than two wires together in any given connection. haven`t had any problems since.

John