Master Cut-Off

[kasoff1]

I cannot find the master cut-off to my box anywhere. I have a WWII era house and I had the whole circuit box and its surrounding exposed in a recent basement renovation. I found nothing that would cut all power off to the house. Any idea where I could think to look for the master cut-off?

Thks
bk

[kadoka]

Check on the outside where the service entry is attached to your house. If the main box doesn't have a shut off, there should be one near the electric meter.

[Sparks]

Maybe, but not necessarily. You could have what is known as a "split bus panel". These panels were manufactured up until 1984 and have no one main disconnect. Nec allows up to 6 disconnects per service. Split-bus panels are not installed anymore. Apparently they were made for the simple reason of reducing costs being that higher ampacities circuit breakers are more costly than using a few smaller ones.

[roger g]

Sparks is right. I've recently seen 2 of those panels without shut offs out here in British Columbia. Never heard of it before or ever seen it before. It seems that they tried them about 20 yeras ago for some ungodly reason.

roger

[Sparks]

I think the reason was the usual, to save money. Bigger breaker means more money. I don't like them at all. They're dangerous being that you may not know about the weird design and not realize the bus is still live when you thought you had the "main" turned off. So you thought. :x