As you may recall, in Dec/2012 I sent out an email to the Park owners detailing the planned action following the BC Safety Authority Gas and Electrical Inspector visits. For the electrical, the initial plan was to look at the power boxes on a few lots to get an idea of their condition and compliance to the electrical code. The electrical boxes on 12 lots have been inspected by an electrician and a number of electrical issues have been found. Since I plan to discuss electrical issues in detail at our AGM on April 27/13 I thought it would be best to provide you with the findings from the 12 lots inspected.
- Power feed to the lots
-Both the main circuit breakers and wires feeding the 30A lot panels are being checked to confirm good/tight electrical connections and that the circuits are not overloaded
Problem: found one box with poor/burnt connections
Solution: repaired connections
- Metering of the power at the lot
-Power is fed from the 30A breaker to the meter then to the trailer
Problem: 3 electrical boxes were found with an additional 15A breaker. The power to this 15A breaker is not being metered
Solution: have the owners agree that any lot with a 15A breaker will be charged a $30.00 annual electrical consumption fee. (very expensive to rewire and have the 15A circuit go through the meter)
- Breaker protection
-Electrical wiring needs to be protected by the appropriate sized breaker
Problem: one 30A breaker was replaced by a 40A breaker but the trailer plug and wire has a 30A capacity rating
Solution: put the 30A breaker back in
Problem: two 30A plugs were found with an additional 15A wire/circuit connected to it.
Solution: the additional 15A wire/circuit requires its own 15A breaker protection
- Buried electrical cables
-Buried electrical cables are normally placed in conduit pipe 18” below grade. Extension cords are not approved for direct buried.
Problem: two lots had direct buried extension cords
Solution: place the wiring in conduit piping or run on the ground
It is the Electrical Inspector’s expectation that the Park and the lot owners will correct the above code compliance issues and any others found on the remaining 57 lots.
Randy North
