I bought a house one year ago and hired an HVAC contractor to relocate the heat pump which was touching the side of the house, not level, and didn't have proper air flow. He moved it about 8 feet or so (because I also wanted it more out of sight as well as fixing the other issues.) About a week ago the heat pump stopped working. I notice the breaker was tripped so I leave it alone and call the same HVAC contractor. He comes today and says there's a hole in the copper refrigerant line which was caused by a high voltage electrical wire next to it arcing over to the copper pipe. (So all the refrigerant leaked out and that's why heat pump stopped working.)
I don't know a lot about electrical issues, so I'll describe the situation as best I can (I can't seem to upload photos here like I used to be able to): There is a single hole through my foundation wall with pipes and wires running from the air handler in the crawlspace to the heat pump outside. That hole is maybe 2" diameter or so, and has two electrical wires and two copper pipes going through it. One electrical wire is large, the other small. One copper pipe is larger and one small. All are crammed in together and touching or almost touching. The high voltage line appears to come out of the hole in the foundation and runs up to a disconnect box that is mounted a couple feet up the wall, then comes out of the box and back down to the pipes and other wire and is bundled with them all the way to the heat pump, wrapped all together with zip ties. There was a bunch of black putty-like stuff filled in around everything at the hole in the wall to patch all the gaps, which the contractor removed today to see what's going on. Both wires have about 1 inch long melted gaps in the jacket, right at the hole in the foundation wall, and right next to the pea size hole in the copper pipe. So this is apparently where the arcing occurred.
The HVAC contractor, who did the repair work last year, says he's not responsible because he never touched the high voltage wire when he extended the lines to the new heat pump location. I'm thinking he may be responsible, so have the following questions:
1) Does the electrical code allow the wires and pipes to be this close together?
2) Is the wire required to be inside conduit when outside the house?
3) Even if the contractor didn't do any work to the areas of wire and pipe that have the problem, but only extended them from that point forward, was he still responsible for making them code complaint as part of his service to the system?
I don't know a lot about electrical issues, so I'll describe the situation as best I can (I can't seem to upload photos here like I used to be able to): There is a single hole through my foundation wall with pipes and wires running from the air handler in the crawlspace to the heat pump outside. That hole is maybe 2" diameter or so, and has two electrical wires and two copper pipes going through it. One electrical wire is large, the other small. One copper pipe is larger and one small. All are crammed in together and touching or almost touching. The high voltage line appears to come out of the hole in the foundation and runs up to a disconnect box that is mounted a couple feet up the wall, then comes out of the box and back down to the pipes and other wire and is bundled with them all the way to the heat pump, wrapped all together with zip ties. There was a bunch of black putty-like stuff filled in around everything at the hole in the wall to patch all the gaps, which the contractor removed today to see what's going on. Both wires have about 1 inch long melted gaps in the jacket, right at the hole in the foundation wall, and right next to the pea size hole in the copper pipe. So this is apparently where the arcing occurred.
The HVAC contractor, who did the repair work last year, says he's not responsible because he never touched the high voltage wire when he extended the lines to the new heat pump location. I'm thinking he may be responsible, so have the following questions:
1) Does the electrical code allow the wires and pipes to be this close together?
2) Is the wire required to be inside conduit when outside the house?
3) Even if the contractor didn't do any work to the areas of wire and pipe that have the problem, but only extended them from that point forward, was he still responsible for making them code complaint as part of his service to the system?