Discolored Buss

[Gary T. Heller]

Attached are two photos with recorded temperatures of the buss at the time of yesterdays inspection. I hope the pictures are clear enough to recognize that the B phase buss is discolored and looks as though at one time it was overheated. This is the second home I have seen this on in the last two months.

The other picture is the SEC. Any others see much of this?

[Bruce A. King]

yes, that panel will most likely need replacing.

Parts may not be readily available, replacing some parts in an old panel is bad maintenance anyway unless you have the means to check the current trip points on all of the old breakers.

[David A. Andersen]

I see about a 20 degree rise (no other information available).

At this point I would not call anything?

Did you do any other testing? Amperage/load?

[Gary T. Heller]

I didn't take any amp readings. I did a thermal scan of each breaker and didn't see any issues. The only thing I called out on the panel was a mismatched breaker except that I added the thermal image and made my client aware of it.

What do you think caused it? Power surge?

[Marc D. Shunk]

Originally Posted by gheller

What do you think caused it? Power surge?

Those Murray/ITE/Seimens main breakers that are that style go bad on a regular basis. That style of main breaker was, is, and continues to be, junk (in my opinion). The one's in the red case seem to be the worst offenders. The recent "flat face" model seems to be okay so far, but both the red and black one's with the "bubble front" are not holding up in the field very well at all, in my experience.

[Mark Nahrgang]

How do you explain this one? This is the most discolored bus I've ever seen.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3269/...c9dcaa.jpg?v=0

[Shawn Rowe]

Gary,

Is that the temperature at the bus AFTER you set the "T-reflect"? If you haven't adjusted your T-reflect you may actually still have an overheating problem. The metal bar may be picking up cooler reflections. If there is a residue on the outside of the bus, the temps may be a bit more accurate.

LEVEL 1 is an important class, especially for these types of applications.

Good luck, let us know what happens.