I Need Some Learnin

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#1

Originally Posted By: David Suelflow
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Well Guys, have at it. This was a carpenters house who fancied himself an electrician and there were plenty of issues to get Sparky to evaluate the entire system so I’m covered, but I’d like to learn a little. This is the first time I’ve come across this setup, marked as for the water heater. It looks like the top 30A breaker is tripped. And what about the mixed wires. Anyway, I’d appreciate any and all input. When you stop to learn, you begin to decay. Thanks.



[ Image: http://www.nachi.org/bbsystem/usrimages/B/Breaker.jpg ]

#2

Originally Posted By: Joey D’Adamo
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What you are looking at is a standard cutler-hammer (westinghouse, and a few others are similar) tandem dual pole breaker. Each half of that breaker hits one bus, and so the only way to provide 240v is to split the breaker like that. It looks fine to me, especially since the outer handle tie is intact.

#3

Originally Posted By: Blaine Wiley
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Looks normal to me. Heck, the “neutral” is even reidentified as a hot wire!

#4

Originally Posted By: lkage
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David Suelflow wrote:
When you stop to learn, you begin to decay.


![icon_eek.gif](upload://yuxgmvDDEGIQPAyP9sRnK0D0CCY.gif) What?...better not stop long here! ![icon_eek.gif](upload://yuxgmvDDEGIQPAyP9sRnK0D0CCY.gif)

--
"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him."
Galileo Galilei
#5

Originally Posted By: lkage
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Joey D'Adamo wrote:
Each half of that breaker hits one bus, and so the only way to provide 240v is to split the breaker like that.


Oh, Thanks.

--
"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him."
Galileo Galilei
#6

Originally Posted By: Joey D’Adamo
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


lkage wrote:
Joey D'Adamo wrote:
Each half of that breaker hits one bus, and so the only way to provide 240v is to split the breaker like that.


Oh, Thanks.


Yeah there is actually a small diagram on the breaker that explains it too.
#7

Originally Posted By: lkage
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Joey D'Adamo wrote:
Yeah there is actually a small diagram on the breaker that explains it too.


So, by moving the breaker up or down one slot, one could use 2-double pole breakers separately?

--
"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him."
Galileo Galilei
#8

Originally Posted By: Greg Fretwell
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These are 1" panel slots with 1/2" breakers in them. You can’t move a half a slot

#9

Originally Posted By: Joey D’Adamo
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Unfortunately one problem I see often with these panels is that the most common ones that were used around here only have about 12 one inch slots, and so i’ve only rarely seen full size breakers in them. Anyway, the problem with this is that i’ve seen everything from multiwire branch circuits, subpanels, etc fed by the same phase using a single tandem breaker, or even 120/240 or 240v circuits fed by two random halves of the tandem breakers without a handle tie or proper labeling.


You more or less have to have an understanding of how these panels work to use them properly. Very similar to how its possible on an FPE panel to put a double pole breaker across the same phase on the bus if you don't know exactly where to put them.

#10

Originally Posted By: lkage
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


Greg Fretwell wrote:
These are 1" panel slots with 1/2" breakers in them. You can't move a half a slot


I was thinking these quad pole breakers were 4" wide for some reason and didn't pay attention to them in relation to the wire sizes but thanks for the clarification.

--
"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him."
Galileo Galilei