Take a close look at this panel ...

[jkogel]

Subpanel in a condo. Look OK?

[Bob Elliott]

Looks like mini breakers.
Red aluminum feed may or may not be in far enough
I see on bare copper on the left but can't tell where it goes.
Neutral and grounds should not be bonded.
Where are the grounds?

[Douglas Cossar]

John:

You say this is a sub in a condo.

Is there a main breaker some place else in the unit? If not there should be one here.

No anti oxidant paste at the Al connections.

Only see one ground Is this an older two wire set up?

There is likely more , but I thinks its enough to suggest further evaluation by a sparky.

Cheers

[Marc D. Shunk]

Looks like a super-deluxe breaker, third down on the left.

[Bob Elliott]

Doug the main breaker can be outside the unit.
Right (sparky Mark)

[Greg Fretwell]

I would certainly like to know more about that panel before I said it was OK.
They do look like mini breakers so if the circuits on the top two are multiwire they are wrong (red and black wire) The 3d one down has a handle tie between half of two mini breakers and fat wire so I bet that is a 240 circuit. It must be different current on each handle (different color).
I have never seen this type of panel but it sure looks like the cheapest thing the builder could find. The hold down clips for the breakers seems to be part of the neutral bus which does seem to be on insulators. It is hard to tell from the photo.

[khazelton]

Are those previous arc marks on the lower right at the missing breaker? And charring on the "240" lines. (might explain the bonded breakers across the pair.) I've never seen the connector screw on the inside of the panel before (upper left, if that's what it is) and is that sealed? And yes I see 1 ground and where does it go?

[jkogel]

Here's some better close up shots. I did call for evaluation by an electrician, but for diff reasons than those above ....

Yes the main breaker is in the utility room downstairs, not considered to be a problem.

The copper ground wire on the is clamped under a panel ground screw with the stranded aluminum wire entering at the bottom.

Panel is Canadian Westinghouse I think, notice it's galvanized inside, too, not so cheap.

All circuits are grounded, condo built in '75.

[jkogel]

Conduit provides panel grounding. Anything else?

[jkogel]

I'm still askin' what's up with this panel???

[Joey D'Adamo]

Definately looks like a Westinghouse panel to me. They all take those twin breakers, and most I've seen were done with them. I think CH bought them out at some point because I have a CH panel in my house (2004) that uses those type of tandem breakers. Actually, I just checked, and the model of my 15/15 tandem breakers are DNPL1515, the very same...just newer, and Cutler-Hammer branded.

What I think is even weirder, is unless my eyes fool me, that is aluminum wire on some of those circuits... if you look closely, I'm pretty sure it's this stuff:

.

I have a 50 foot-or-so roll of it in my basement! hahaha

ALCAN, strangely enough, also made copper wire in a similar format but the text on the side was orange, and I can see the green text just a bit in your photos.

Oh, I should mention, those breakers, vintage and all, trip very reliably in my experience (I have two stories...but I'll leave them out for now. )

[Marc D. Shunk]

Consequently, is that an old NovaLine panel?

[Joey D'Adamo]

Originally Posted by Marc D. Shunk

Consequently, is that an old NovaLine panel?

Yeah.. that's it! I couldn't remember; I had it on the tip of my brain and I really wanted to say "homeline," but really thought that was another brand so I didn't say... you are right.. Novaline is exactly what it is... what I don't know is if it was made by or bought out by Westinghouse (the history I don't exactly know).

[jkogel]

We have a winner!! Thanks Joey, I posted this as a test of the board, so to speak.

The point of this thread was that there are indeed 6 solid Aluminum branch circuits in this panel. The original electrician did high quality work, so there were just glimpses of the aluminum wire visible around the screw heads on the neutral bus. The first thing that catches your eye and fools you is the sloppier installation of the copper 14/3 which was a later addition, with the full size 15A breaker.

I called for evaluation by an electrician mainly to have the outlets and switches checked out. The panel looks fine to me, maybe just a retightening of the screws needed, but I leave that up to the experts.

[Joey D'Adamo]

That discolored screw in one of the pictures might suggest a loose/high resistance connection. Although any charring (even mild) from the insulation is strangely absent. Perhaps it is a problem to be, or a problem that was fixed and the original breaker was kept.

Hey, is that cable clamp installed inwards a code issue? I'm sure it works well for its purpose, but is it really ok? Just wonderin.