Thread: 60's home with low voltage switching

Yesterdays AM inspection was a rare treat, all the lighting was switched with low voltage relays. Surprisingly enough the lighting was all functional. Tons of issues with these panels, and several other areas.
I usually only see a couple of the low voltage setups such as this each year and thought I would share.

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So much for 3' clearance in front of the electrical equipment.

There were so many issues in this area that it was ridiculous.
Each relay panel was overfilled, the raceway was overfilled, neutral connections for one panel were all made up in the raceway, hundreds of splices in the raceway, 12V and 120V in a shared raceway, 12V wiring running through distribution panels, transformer feeds with no apparent overcurrent protection, wiring undersized for breakers, the disconnects for HVAC systems were here instead of at the point of use, and on and on.
Then there was also a gas fired water heater in this room, no combustion air provided, flame on WH was yellow, flames were rolling out when WH would light, WH was not drafting correctly and flue gases were spilling out, elevated CO level with doors closed, 7 gallons of gasoline stored in room, jugs & bottles of herbicides, pesticides, cleaning products, bleach, ammonium nitrate fertilizer, urea fertilizer, kerosene lanterns & fuel, a kerosene heater with a full tank of fuel and two 20 lb propane cylinders.
When I told the seller that she had a fire and explosion hazard in the room she told me that "It hasn't been a problem so far".

Originally Posted by Alton Darty

Each relay panel was overfilled, ...

Those might not be overfilled, those may be as designed.

The design is for a certain number of relays, the low voltage side is designed for at least two conductors per relay, with the line side also being designed for at least two conductors per relay - if there were two conductors per relay in both the low voltage side and the line side ... then it was as designed.

If there were more than two conductors per relay in each side - maybe - it was overfilled, but maybe not.