no main breaker

[Scott Donnelly]

inspected a 100 amp box with no main breaker. It had 8 breakers labeld as "main breaker" to turn off all power to house and one sub panel. The box was full .Is there any soultion short of upgrading to a 200 amp panel box.

[David A. Andersen]

How big is the house?

You may need a bigger service...

[Jim Port]

There is something not right here. There would be no need to have 8 main breakers to shut the power off. I would also ask how the wires from the meter were split to provide power to 8 breakers at the same time. Do you have pics of the panel front and the inside?

There are 100 amp panels available with main breakers and space for typically 20 circuits. I do not know why someone thought you would have to ungrade to a 200 amp panel.

A disconnect could also be installed ahead of the panel. The panel would then need to be feed with a 4 wire feeder and grounds and neutrals isolated.

[Scott Donnelly]

The house is over 3000 sq ft, built in the 20's They are not really main breakers, just labeled that way. One went to a sub panel. ILL post some pics. If memory service me correctly you should not need more then 6 moves to shut off all power?

[David A. Andersen]

One of the breakers may in fact be the main.

Did you shut it off?
Did you open the panel?
How was it wired?

You guys need to provide some information for these questions.
We can't see it from here. How can we comment about anything?

We don't even know where you work...

[Scott Donnelly]

I attached 2 pics. Yes I shut them off, one at a time. None of them shut off everything. With the use of a voltage detector I was not sure everything was off when all "labeled main breakers" were off.

[Jeffrey R. Pope]

Looks like possibly a split-bus. . .

[Robert Meier]

Looks like a MLO (main lug only panel) to me.

[Larry D. Kage]

Not clear to me.

[Larry D. Kage]

Originally Posted by sdonnelly

inspected a 100 amp box with no main breaker. It had 8 breakers labeld as "main breaker" to turn off all power to house and one sub panel.

Was there a disconnect upstream?

And, was this panel pictured wired as a remote distribution panel?

[Robert Meier]

I wouldn't assume that a CB labeled with a sticker is actually the MAIN. Anyone could install those stickers not knowing what the word MAIN implies with regards to a service. I've seen electricians with 20 years in the business put the SERVICE DISCONNECT sticker on disconnect switches for motors having no clue what the purpose of that sticker actually is. In my eyes it's pretty clear that the panel has no main.

[Scott Donnelly]

No upstream disconnect and no its not a remote sub panel. There is a sub panel next to it that is fed from here. I agree with the comment about no main breaker. I wrote it up as an unsafe situation needing further evaluation by an electrcian. I'm wondering if there is any fix short of a upgraded service since the box is full.

[Jim Port]

I tried to blow the picture up to see better, but I don't even see 8 breakers labeled MAIN. I do see one two pole labeled Range and another that might say Lighting Main.

All the Square D split buss I have seen had a space between the top and bottom buss halves. But the breaker labeled Lighting Main would make me check to verify it as a split buss.

[Christopher Currins]

Originally Posted by Jim Port

I tried to blow the picture up to see better, but I don't even see 8 breakers labeled MAIN. I do see one two pole labeled Range and another that might say Lighting Main.

Your right, there isn't 8 breakers labeled MAIN, and it looks like the one, top right, that is is feeding the sub-panel.

[wsiegel]

You also have grouond and nuetral wires under the same screw.