Everyone enjoys pretzels. They go so well with certain adult beverages, mustard or just by themselves. The most common form of pretzel is the familiar twist. There are also braids and pretzel sticks. No matter the form, they taste delicious.
Pretzel has also become a word associated with something or even someone that is twisted. My favorite being Pretzel Logic.
When inspecting an electric panel in a Connecticut home recently I was reminded of pretzels, braided pretzels. Now I'm certain when most people look at the inside of a standard house electric panel, they are reminded of another food, spaghetti. The plethora of wires going hither and yon I would imagine look like an illogical, twisted up mess. Fortunately there are a few humanoids like myself that have the ability to decipher the wire code.
Coming back to that panel I was referring to a moment ago, the reason I was reminded of pretzels was not the normal tangle of wires. No, it was the electrician's method of installing the equipment grounds for all the branch circuits through out the home.
All three wires in a standard circuit in a house have a place in the electric panel. The feed wires (black or red) go to the breaker, the neutral wires (white) and ground wires (bare copper) go to the neutral / ground terminal. Everything has a place.
It seems this electrician was asleep during that part of electrical training. ALL the ground wires in this particular panel have been twisted into a large rope. This took a great deal of effort to do.....
Wrong!
No where could I find a connection from this braided pretzel to the panel or a terminal. All these ground wires are protecting nothing.
This is the original electric panel for this house built in 1975. Apparently no one has up to now found issue with the wire pretzel.
Mustard anyone?
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