Smokey The Bear [RE-wrenches]

[Aaron Wellendorf]

Mark,

Sometimes the strange questions provoke thought (and response) that is a
good conceptual review and also amazing stress relief. I needed that.
Thank you.

Based on the small to medium (<50 unit) apartment buildings I have
worked on and lived in, I would make the following assumption: A units
in a single apartment building would not be served by separate "service
entrances" or by multiple transformers. The building would be submetered
from one service entrance from one transformer and there would be a main
breaker for the building, unless there was 6 units or less. The fire
department would not want (and the NEC would not allow you) to walk into
a utility room that has 50 "service disconnects" that take 50 motions of
the hand to disconnect all sources of power to the building.

The question was vague concerning whether a person was arbitrarily using
a portable cord to connect outlets in two adjacent separately metered
units in the same apartment building. If it was an arbitrary connection,
then I agree with one of Matt's options in that there would be a 50/50
(if single phase) or 1/3 (if 3 phase) chance of almost nothing
happening. If nothing seems to happen then it is because the extension
cord just happened to make parallel paths for the same hot leg. The
extension cord would share some of the load on that leg between units
and the submeter readings would reflect the sharing.

There are multiple scenarios due to the generalness of the question. If
different hot legs are shorted together, then Matt's other options would
apply.

Thanks again for the stress break.

Aaron Wellendorf


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