This is from dictation.
This is a request for help from experts who understand the issues involving
aluminum pressure contact conductivity. This is about applications where two pieces of aluminum are brought together under pressure to make electrical contact. There are no screws nuts or bolts involved, just pressure.
Here's the application.
I have electrical panel outside my house that was here years ago. We never replaced the panel because of economic concerns. The cost of labor for replacing the electrical panel was outside of our budgetary expectations. So we decided to go ahead and use the existing panel.
Long story short, the panel lasted for several years until it finally failed when the main circuit breaker became damaged. Once I hired private electrician to replace the damaged main breaker using the best of his skills and knowledge. The new circuit breaker was very expensive, because it is a model that is no longer in current production and the part was from replacement stocks. In other words, they jack the price up very high because it's a old replacement part. So we went for that because at the time the idea of replacing the whole panel did not seem to be attractive. (A poor decision.)
Well after about may be seven years or so the replacement circuit breaker also failed. Almost the same as the old old. again. Except only one leg failed.
The men in my friends and Associates think that the problem is I just need to have a higher amperage circuit breaker.
That is not true. It was never a question of there being too much current going through the circuit breaker. The issue was the circuit breaker would overheat. It would overheat basically for three reasons. First of all there was quite a bit of current flowing through it, but not beyond the limit of what the circuit breaker could handle. Second thing was that the temperatures outside in the summertime rose to be very, very high. This circuit breaker box is outdoors and does not have any kind of protection from the weather, so it got just as hot as the surrounding air and with the other problems it became very hot. Here's the third problem. The third problem is that the bus-bars are
aluminum and so are the contacts on the circuit breaker.
These contacts are pressure contacts and are not screwdriver adjustable contacts. Those of you that understand the problem with pressure contacts and aluminum conductors can understand the problem. The upper bus-bar in the electrical panel had been pitted and the electrician had placed the circuit breaker over the same area that had been pitted. Although he did his best to try to avoid placing it over the pit area, apparently where he placed it the bus-bar had a tendency to not make good contact. I did not actually see him burnish or treat the bus-bar, so I don't know what he did. Anyway, it went for several years, so I can't find fault with what he did. Likely water may have entered the box during the winter time and washed away some of the protective material that is used on aluminum bus-bars.
But here's my problem, I understand the basic ideas, but people around me don't seem to understand what I'm talking about and they have their own ideas about how to solve the problem. In fact one of my relatives thought the best idea was to remove all the stuff that was on the bus-bar altogether, he erroneously thinking that the compound used on the bus-bar was simply some type of petroleum grease and would interfere with conductivity. He of course was wrong, but he's older than me and one of my relatives, so what can I say?
Anyway I need to find a reference somewhere that explicitly states you absolutely have to use the
antioxidant material to cover the bus-bars before you put the circuit breaker in place. I don't know where to find that explicit statement. Perhaps some of you who are licensed electricians know the chapter and verse for it says you have to do that with aluminum bus bars in a panel that uses only pressure to connect aluminum to aluminum.
There are no screws or nuts that will help keep the circuit breaker firmly attached to the bus-bars. It's only by pressure from the contact of the circuit breaker itself. This is an old-style circuit breaker often called a type Q and it was made by Sylvania or some other company like that. It is definitely different from the modern day Square D panels that are commonly used in new installations.
I could guess that this panel probably is more than 30 years old. I have no idea when it was first installed. Anyway, most of the two bus-bars looks good and appears to be good, just the one area where the circuit breaker blew out is badly pitted.
So I'm looking for some explicit information about what to do when you have a bus-bar that is pitted in just one area. I need to find something that is written in explicit language so other people here will not keep trying to interfere with my attempt to repair the electrical panel box. I have to depend on somebody else to actually do the work due to my inability to work in a tight space with poor visibility. So it helps if I have some written instructions that I can share with other people.
Yes, this is not directly related to my computer. But before I can use my computer and neglect to repair the electrical system. Right now I have it working on a temporary situation where at least half of the circuit breaker still working. Yes, one half of the circuit breaker still works. The other half is blown away and it looks like somebody shot at the gun.
Thank you for listening to my problems. I appreciate any positive are marks you have to make.
As you will make some negative remarks, I don't blame you.
End of dictation.
