How do you tighten up your circuit breaker box

[CGabriel]

Electricians have told me that in businesses the lugs in all panels should all be tensioned on a regular basis. I think he said for sure, every couple years. I do not know if it's in the code or just good practice.

If you go down the lugs, you will almost always be able to tighten them some. The 60hz is a vibration and does loosen screws over time. For the business I'm in, we service all primary and secondary lugs on about a quarterly basis. Some don't move much, some will tighten a half turn. I've always generically referred to it as a "nut and bolt" session.

It's real, it happens and it's only logical to occasionally check how tight the lugs are in the panel and in electrical outlets. High current certainly causes this much more and home use wouldn't need nearly as often as in industrial settings. But over time in the home, it's only smart to do if you don't want current sag to effect transient high current pull moments.

CJ

Thank you. Finally someone in the thread that actually knows what he is talking about.

 

[treitz3]

That's my buddy and yes, he knows exactly what he's talking about. Glad you [of all people] noticed, Mr. Gabriel. He's good folk.



Tom

 

[MtnHam]

I live in a very remote area, at the end of a 5 mile private gravel road, surrounded by 1,000's of acres of open space. The nearest neighbor is a mile away. I am at the end of a 20,000V line that starts a long ways away and serves only a few residences, mine being the last. The 20,000/240V transformer on the last pole of the line serves only me. Approximately 1/2 mile back from my pole is a very long (500') stretch between 2 poles spanning a canyon where there is often wind. When the wind is blowing across the wire span at 5mph or more it vibrates the wires and causes the poles to "hum." Placing one's hand on the pole, or even several removed, reveals significant vibration. I do not hear any effect to my audio system. It would seem that power transmission lines everywhere would be behaving in the same way. Should I be concerned? Should you?

 

[Speedskater]

The stake in the ground is there for safety, mostly during thunderstorms and power company high voltage problems. In any case, it has nothing to do with power quality for your audio system.

 

[treitz3]

I live in a very remote area, at the end of a 5 mile private gravel road, surrounded by 1,000's of acres of open space. The nearest neighbor is a mile away. I am at the end of a 20,000V line that starts a long ways away and serves only a few residences, mine being the last. The 20,000/240V transformer on the last pole of the line serves only me. Approximately 1/2 mile back from my pole is a very long (500') stretch between 2 poles spanning a canyon where there is often wind. When the wind is blowing across the wire span at 5mph or more it vibrates the wires and causes the poles to "hum." Placing one's hand on the pole, or even several removed, reveals significant vibration. I do not hear any effect to my audio system. It would seem that power transmission lines everywhere would be behaving in the same way. Should I be concerned? Should you?

No.

Tom

 

[CGabriel]

K

I live in a very remote area, at the end of a 5 mile private gravel road, surrounded by 1,000's of acres of open space. The nearest neighbor is a mile away. I am at the end of a 20,000V line that starts a long ways away and serves only a few residences, mine being the last. The 20,000/240V transformer on the last pole of the line serves only me. Approximately 1/2 mile back from my pole is a very long (500') stretch between 2 poles spanning a canyon where there is often wind. When the wind is blowing across the wire span at 5mph or more it vibrates the wires and causes the poles to "hum." Placing one's hand on the pole, or even several removed, reveals significant vibration. I do not hear any effect to my audio system. It would seem that power transmission lines everywhere would be behaving in the same way. Should I be concerned? Should you?

Respectfully sir that is irrelevant and not the issue. Would you be concerned if the connections to your speaker and amplifier were loose or tenuously attached?

The issue is that the solid core wires in your wall are attached to the electrical panel with small set screws. Copper is a soft metal will tend to deform when placed under pressure and loosen over time without any other influence. Furthermore, there is vibration of the wires caused by the alternating current (magnetostriction) and from physical vibration of the home structure. A loosend connection allows corrosion to penetrate the point of contact between the wire and the terminal.

This is very easy to verify - simply turn the main breaker off and tighten the set screws in the electrical panel. Invariably several of them will be loose. Nobody is asking you to buy anything nor is anyone asking you to subscribe to a bizarre belief system. This is simple mechanics.

Just as a point of reference, I come from a family of electricians. My grandfather was an electrician, my 5 uncles are electricians and my sister is a master commercial electrician and I worked as an electrician while attending college. It is COMMON practice for an electrician to re-tighten terminal connections after an initial installation. There is no controversy about this by those professionals with actual real life experience.

 

[DonH50]

I don't think anyone was contesting the benefits of tightening the screws to the wires. The question was about the box itself coming loose from the wall, unless I misunderstood the first post (quite possible), and how it would impact the sound. Except in pretty special circumstances I do not think I have seen that happen, at least so you would notice, and after considerable time had elapsed. Of course the house frame or whatever could shift and cause the box to loosen, and that in turn could put more stress on the wires if improper stress relief (dressage) was provided (usually just looping the wires in the service box). That said, when I was doing electrician stuff (long time ago), we routinely did 6-moth and 1-year checks of new installations and would retighten the box mounting and all wire attachments inside, and do the same whenever we were called to a home for anything. SOP. I do not know the audible benefits (or not) of any of that since it was not something we checked (Survey Question#33: Did the sound of your stereo improve after our electrician serviced your facility? yes__ no__ ). It would not surprise that it did in some cases; probably not in most.

I worked on some old theater wiring a couple of times and that was just scary. Old rheostats/dimmers that would arc as you adjusted them, and numerous loose/sizzling connections as well as wires with old insulation falling off and the wires inside oxidized to almost nothing. Amazed the place hadn't burned to the ground! They eventually had to do some remodeling and bring everything up to code.