Can someone tell me if this is normal for this breaker??
Thanx
Are you referring to the 100 amp marked MAIN? A back fed breaker is required to be held in place by a screw or retention clip. I’m guessing that’s why the screw is there. The question is was that breaker designed and listed to be held in place by that screw?
That looks like it might be a Cutler Hammer Type BR 100A breaker feeding that panel. They come with a special hole in the breaker for a hold-down retainer screw when used to backfeed a panel. Did it look like the attached pics?
P.S. Backfeeding means that the feeders supply power to the panel through a typical breaker position, and not a factory installed main breaker at the top (typically on a panel that doesn’t have a main breaker, called an MLO panel).
It’s OK to do it that way, but the main breaker for the feeders in that panel needs a special hold-down retainer clip or screw from the breaker manufacturer to keep the breaker in position. Otherwise if the breaker is removed or comes out without shutting off the power from the source, the breaker will still be hot … :shock:
Here is a photo of a CH backfed panel with the screw type main breaker hold-down.
And ya just have to ask yourself, how long did it take sparky to wire up this panel … 
A highly skilled electrician can install that kind of work in almost the same amount of time as low skilled electrician installing sloppy work. IMO all panels should look like that. :mrgreen:
One of the neatest panels I have seen … but if you look close he didnt re-identify a white wire on one of the 2-pole breakers … :roll:
(Forget the ground wires … RM’s right, it’s twisted bare grounds)
Here are two of my favorites …
I think the grounds are just bare color that has been twisted together. They do not look like red insulated conductors.
Also the requirement to re-mark a white as a hot may post date this installation.
Im even more impressed with the time he took to twist them together like that.
I thought that requirement has been around for a long time?
Not very long. Maybe 2 or 3 code cycles.
Thanks for the confirmation and taking time to look that up Robert.
Actually I didn’t look it up because I cannot find some of my electrical reference books. :roll:
I will try to confirm what I was saying from memory, this one gathered a lot of complaints about sanitizing the NEC for DIYer’s.
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NEC 200-7 which has the requirement for white wires to only be used for neutral (grounded) conductors unless re-identified dates back at least to 1996, the earliest NEC edition I have handy. I think it goes back a lot farther than that.
I might be thinking about re-marking the white in a switch loop.
Here is essentially the same requirement in the 1959 NEC … I dont have anything older than that in the archives.
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I might have been thinking of that as well. My only question is if it has been required for so long why is it that every 20 year old or older panel never has the white re-identified when used on a two pole breaker?
I run across white wires being used as hot conductors without being re-identified pretty often. Many electricians didn’t think it was such a big deal, just like double lug neutrals. I agree with them that it’s not a big deal to have a larger white wire as a hot conductor … but it still gets noted. Double lug neutrals is another story … 
P.S. You might be thinking about the recent changes to list a lot of those identification requirements, instead of the previous paragraph format, to make it easier to understand. I dont like the changes cause it just makes the code than much thicker. Now the 1897 NEC, thats a short and sweet code. And no, that one doesn’t have the re-identification provisions …
Right! The company I worked with during the last year of my apprenticeship and another five years as a journeyman required that level of workmanship on everything we did. The journeyman I worked under during my last year as an apprentice had been an electrician specializing in fighter jets in navy. We learned by example. He could wire any panel fast and have it look at least as good as the one in the photo.
As an electrical contractor, I required all my electricians to wire to the highest possible workmanship standards. The new ones would initially complain but they soon learned that they could do neat work as fast as they could do sloppy work. The larger the panel, the easier it becomes.
And when you see that level of workmanship, your not likely to see many problems. The “Harry Homeowner” and “Harry Hack” work in those panels sticks out like a sore thumb, and I usually go right to that wiring looking for problems.
Robert, thanks for the education. Backfeeding is a term I was not familiar with. I learned something new!