I live in NJ and I finished my basement a number of years ago. I hired an electrician to wire the whole basement to a new panel so I could leave the old panel that the rest of the house runs off of alone. Now I'm trying to sell the place and this guy brought his "expert" with him and he said what I have going on is wrong. I drew a diagram the best I could and am going to put a photo of the junction box hat guy didn't like.





The service comes in one side and one side goes 4' to basement panel and the other side to the panel that is 6' away upstairs.

Any input would be appreciated

Thanks,
Pete

 

Welcome to the forums! It could be the fact you are feeding two panels from the meter without disconnect between the meter and panels. Did he elaborate on what he didn't like about it?

 

Done right? NO
Since the panels are both coming off the meter they need to be grouped together.
Can't have one on one floor and one on another. Also, I hope they're main breaker panels.

I'd have to check tap rules but, it looks like you have 2-100 amp panels being fed by #2 SEU.

 

Thanks for the welcome!

I know it was done this way to separate the services if we even wanted to rent out the basement, the house is a mother/daughter set up. He asked me twice why I didn't just have two meters. I think he would just prefer if they were separate services because he plans to rent it as a two family house if he bought it.

The guy was brought by the buyer to look at the foundation, because "he is a mason and does this work all the time". Then he's an electrician after seeing that. I believe the buyer brought him along to drive my price down.

Thanks for the input guys, much appreciated.

 

@wirenut1110 I can't read the number off the cables. The cable from the meter to the junction box and from the junction to the main panel are about the same diameter. That panel I believe is 200A, has two A/C condensers & air handlers, a dryer, and a stove running off it, in addition to lights and outlets and such. The panel in the basement does have a smaller diameter cable leading to it, but only has lights, outlets, a dryer, and a stove running off it.


The cable on the left goes to the basement and the cable on the right to the main panel.

 

Is there a means of disconnect outside

Reason I ask is, this is SER which tells me these are feeders and not service entrance.

If there's a disconnect outside then this installation is almost ok. The code says the tap conductors need to be in a raceway.

 

Can you post pictures of what's outside?

 

That's what is below the meter. I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but its 200A

 

Well then the only thing "wrong" with it is, is the tapped conductors need to be in a raceway.

I would also check to make sure that metal box is grounded.

 

Thank you very much for the info. Your awesome Wirenut!