No Main

A relative of mine was showing me his service box in his home..... I noticed to my surprise their are no main circuit breakers........ I do not believe this is code what-so-ever....... The home was purchased this way.. I advised him to check into correcting this........ He said he was told it was not neccessary................. ? Thanks

 

Split-bus panels have no main breaker. And some panels have an external main disconnect. Split-bus panels were legal in their day (the six top half breakers collectively act as the main disconnect), and of course an external disconnect is still legal.

 

The main may be one of the double pole breakers in the panel.

 

I have seen numerous panels with the main, an average looking 2-pole CB, in the middle of the lineup. It is usually, but not necessarily, a 60 amp. Could be 100, though. As John Nelson said, this is often a "split bus" panel. As is too often the case, there is no panelboard legend identifying the breakers, so to the casual observer ,who is looking for the main to be a larger than normal breaker up top and centered, it would appear as though there was none. If you don't mind re-setting the time on your VCR, digital clocks, etc., I would suggest killing your 2-pole breakers one at a time until you see the whole house go down with one of them. And then label that breaker with the word "main".

Or it's possible that you have a main disconnect outdoors. But I have never seen a home with no main disconnecting means, so that is not likely to be the case.

Juice