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Can we talk about how panel wiring takes longer than the install itself?
Everyone in this trade says the panel is the easy part, slap it in, land the wires, done. That is not what happens for me. Had a job in Rochester back in March, 16 zones plus 4 keypads, and I figured panel wiring would eat maybe 2 hours of the day. It ate 6. The can was a tight retrofit in a finished basement, no room to work, and every ground wire fought me. I had to redo the battery leads twice because the first crimp was loose and the system threw a low batt fault. Then the zone wiring, forget it, I must have traced and re-terminated 9 of those runs because the old wiring colors meant nothing and the labels were gone. What I want to say is this: installers keep telling new guys the panel is where you save time, and that is backwards in my book. The panel is where you lose it because everything else depends on it being right. How do you all handle a retrofit can that has no slack, do you re-pull the home runs or just fight the old wire?
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bens8110d ago
Man, this hits home so hard. Did a 22 zone retrofit in a 1920s house last fall and the panel alone took me almost a full day because nothing was labeled and half the runs were spliced in weird spots. When there is no slack in that can you have two bad choices, either re-pull the home run or splice on a pigtail and pray the connection holds. I usually re-pull if I can get a fish tape through, but in a finished basement that is sometimes just not happening so I solder and heat shrink instead of crimping. Crimps fail way too often on old wire, especially if the copper is nicked or green. The worst part is the customer sees the keypads and thinks that was the job, they have no idea we spent all day just getting the can right.
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