04/02/2026
We had a fun one this afternoon with some crazy voltage output on the line side of an AC disconnect, 55V to ground on each leg and 239V phase to phase. Nothing visibly marked in any of the 4 panels throughout the house... no main breaker panel, just 4 sub panels with a main breaker disconnects in the garage. After tripping the breaker, finding the breaker, and found out what the wire looked like. Aluminum 10/2 from the panel, spliced in to 12/2 copper going to the disconnect, ALL on a 2 pole 50A breaker... no dielectric grease on the splices. Note the free air splice. It was only a matter of time before the corrosion took over... oh and a little heat from the arcing wires in the wire nut.
The feeder wire came in over head, from a pole in the neighbors yard, and in to the gutter. 4 line side taps in to each "main breaker", which then fed panels through the house.