200 AMP Jumper

[AC Shop]

I was at a Customers house to replace a Gas Pack with a bad heat exchanger. The Unit sat close to the electric meter base. A while back the customer built a new Barn/Shop and the Power company put his meter at the road (200 Yards away) to cover both the Barn and the house. I couldn't help but notice the Jumpers that was put in the old meterbase with a clear cover. maybe a #8 wire at best.

[jnsrose]

Looks a little bigger then 8 to me. None the less it is a cheap fuse. If there is a fire in the box you need a new fuse.

[Hwolfe]

That looks similar to this 20000 amp fuse I found on a pull out disconnect for a thirty amp a/c. Yes I swapped them out for actually fuses.

[jnsrose]

Good thing you swapped them. They were getting a little green probably going bad soon.

[blitz]

seriously, how expensive is a fuse???

[philjafo]

Ok I know a fuse holder should only have an appropriate fuse in it, but if the wire is the correct guage from the disconnect to the breaker box with the correct breaker in the box, how is so different from a non fused disconnect?

[Hwolfe]

Well I agree on newer homes. This house originally had the old knob and tub wiring. It's had been up graded with a square d box but some of the circuits still utilize the old wiring which is stupid In my opinion. I didn't even charge them for the fuses covered it with the new system job number.

[qssfl]

We see allot of older homes that have a 60 amp breaker with #6 wire going to the air handler with 10 kw heat...From there they junction 10 gauge wire going out to the condensing unit...In this particular scenario you must have a properly fused disconnect box going to the condensing unit period.

Funny part is HVAC contractors in South Florida are not allowed to change out the disconnect box...yet I see licensed electricians install non-fused boxes in the above scenario 5 out of 10 times.

[meplumber]

We see allot of older homes that have a 60 amp breaker with #6 wire going to the air handler with 10 kw heat...From there they junction 10 gauge wire going out to the condensing unit...In this particular scenario you must have a properly fused disconnect box going to the condensing unit period.

Funny part is HVAC contractors in South Florida are not allowed to change out the disconnect box...yet I see licensed electricians install non-fused boxes in the above scenario 5 out of 10 times.

Similar scenario here. We are not allowed to go any further than the equipment disconnect. A licensed electrician is responsible to set the disconnect and tie it into the panel. There have been more than a few instances where we have shown up to the site to set the condenser and we have refused due to the sloppy or code-violating work of the owner's electrician.

[machery]

Those jumpers you are refering to are actually meter jumpers. Many power co's use them in those situation. They are good for around a hundred amps. Even though it may be a 200 amp service, most services you won't see a hundred amps of current flow at all.