I just learned of safety issues with Federal Pioneer electrical panels. I have a house built in 2002/2003 (Canada) which has a Federal Pioneer panel, presumably of 2002 manufacture. Will it present the same hazard as older panels or would the safety issues present in older panels not exist in mine?
Electrical – Federal Pioneer panel safety
electrical-panelfire-hazard
Related Solutions
Take a look at the image below. Code requires you have at least 3 feet in front of the panel, 6.5 above, and 30 inches side to side. There is a trick with the 30 inches that it can be measured from either side of the panel, dead center, etc. so you get some wiggle room there. Based on what you've said about your laundry room, it sounds like code-wise it will probably work. (Although bear in mind some regions apply additional codes)
However, you also need to take into account what's in the wall. Between a door and window you'll have king studs and who knows what other load bearing stuff that could interfere with box placement or getting wires to the box. There is also the issue with wires being short when rerouted so now you'd need to make additional splices which could require water-proofing if they are still below flood level.
You can purchase outdoor breaker boxes which are rated NEMA-3-ish which means they are suitable for outdoor use and protect from rain, but as Harper mentioned, they don't protect for dust, bugs, etc. I would also agree with Jim that moving the panel would not be a cheap option. My guess is you could pop some concrete in the basement, dig a hole, and put in a good sump pump with a failure alarm for far less that moving the panel will cost.
You are fine.
The 200 amp breaker in the main panel will protect the wires leading to the sub. The main breaker in the sub is not strictly necessary, except as a local shutoff. You could as easily use a sub designed with no main, feeding directly to the bus bars.
The only requirement in this context is that the feeder breaker be sized to protect the feed wires and the sub panel itself.
Related Topic
- Electrical – 400 amp meter base combo
- Electrical – Bonding vs grounding a main and sub panel
- Electrical – Need help to understand the electric panels and subpanels
- Electrical – ny issue with the neutral and ground being connected in this panel
- Electrical – add a 125amp panel to a current 125amp main panel
- Electrical – How to fill two or more adjacent spaces on a QO panel
Best Answer
Meet Schneider Electric's red-headed stepchild
Since about the mid-1980s, Schneider Electric Canada has been the one responsible for the (re)design and manufacture of the Federal Pioneer Stab-Lok product line. While reliable information on the Federal Pioneer product line is scarce, there has been evidence that Schneider Canada has acted to clean up the most egregrious design flaws with the Federal Pioneer Stab-Lok product line, mainly in the form of recalls of Stab-Lok breakers that appear to be of somewhat later designs than the original Federal Pacific type NA and show proper concern for electrical safety on the part of Schneider Canada.
Considering the recent vintage of your panel, I would monitor it, preferably with periodic infrared camera inspections to catch failing connections. Having an electrician familiar with Federal Pacific/Federal Pioneer design flaws take it apart and inspect its innards visually may be valuable as well -- they may be able to tell you if your panel has retained any of the "red flag" busbar design errors that contribute significantly to the fire hazard old Federal Pacific panels pose. Furthermore, a panel that new is highly unlikely to be a "split bus" or "rule of six" design -- a panel with a single main disconnect is potentially less vulnerable to being rendered completely irrelevant due to common-trip jamming faults in two-pole branch breakers than the "rule of six" design was.
I do not recommend, however, any "testing" of branch circuit breakers, especially in-situ; the required fault currents to properly test a breaker's magnetic trip capability are highly hazardous in the case of a failure, and it is practically impossible to get a sufficiently accurate "calibrated short" in the field anyway. Furthermore, breakers are rated for a limited number of cycles at their nameplate interrupting current -- after they reach this limit, replacement is required to guarantee maintenance of their interrupting capability.