I went back to the breaker panel and checked again and you are correct. They are marked 10,ooo aic in white letters where the 10 is easy to read and the rest not so much. The actual amperage is a molded number on the handle where it is not highlighted or readily visible, at least to my old eyes. The breakers are actually 20 amp breakers.Quote:
Originally Posted by sharps4590
Thank you for the information. You saved me some unnecessary expense and worry.
Attachment 229133
Sharps4590 made a good guess. I was thinking the same thing and his later post confirmed it. I've had customers do the same thing. Most residential equipment was once rated at 10K but is being increased to 22K. I'm guessing that this may be because building practices have changed. You once had large lots and long overhead services and now smaller lots with larger underground services are more common. A 10kva transformer and 100 ft of #4 won't produce 10,000 amps of fault current but a 50kva transformer and 100ft of 4/0 will easily exceed that. This is to keep the equipment from failing, or exploding, if it has to operate. Prolly more than most wanted to know about fault current!Quote:
Originally Posted by sharps4590
Some breakers or more dependable than others. When I was working I favored Square D's QO line. The older grey handle CH were good too. FPE was notorious for not tripping and in my mind the jury is still out on the older GE's. As to sizes, I have seen 10 and even smaller size breakers but 15 and 20 amp and larger will be about all you will find for sale.
When I wired houses I never used any wire smaller than #12. Not even for the switch leg. I fused the multi outlet circuits at 20 amps and the single outlet circuits, ie the washing machine, dish washer, ect, at 15 amps. This was just me, many others have done differently.
Your attachment is not working for me but I'm guessing that it may be a picture. You are correct, the breaker rating should be on the handle. It may or may not be in a different color. I'm glad that you did not pay an electrician to change out all of your breakers. Most electricians would have shown that to you before charging you for doing the work, but................Quote:
Originally Posted by tazman
14ga is useful when the lighting designer wants 12 switches in a 2x4 wall, otherwise 12ga.
Square D QO has a 10 amp breaker but I've never seen one in an AC panel. I use them for solar as they are rated to 48 volts DC too.
As LED has become more common I don't see a thing wrong with #14 for lighting. If properly loaded I didn't see anything wrong with it pre-LED. If a conductor is loaded correctly at the 80% of capacity, what's the difference between breaking 4/0 USE-2 at 200 amps or #14 at 15 amps? Both are properly protected.
I semi-retired about 3 years ago and only work about 15-20 hours a week....and less than that for about 3 more months. I was unaware the residential AIC was being increased. For what you described, lightman, it makes perfect sense. I'll have to watch next time I buy any breakers and see what's on them. Most of what I do these days is change switches and repair fixtures for Grandma....and others....lol! Do a lot of LED updating for my commercial customers. I couldn't agree more with your opinion on breakers. I have found the Homeline, Square D series to be good but when we built I put in QO. I wouldn't get up out of my chair for a GE unless I needed a cheap welder. The tan handled, CH series, by Cutler Hammer, (I assume that's what you're calling gray handled?) I think is as good as QO. I'm kinda still on the fence about their BR series. You sure see a lot of BR switch gear locally and given the cost of Square D I'm not surprised. FPE got in trouble with UL...and for good reason. The old FPE, wide bodied breakers were pretty good but after about '78 or '80 they went to the dogs and those Slim Lines were never worth spit. FPE did make good switch gear. Some of that old stuff I've taken out was built like a tank. I don't believe I've seen more than 1 or 2, 10 amp breakers during my entire career and those were in a BIG hospital....what the heck they were for I don't know, probably a motor load or maybe a little bitty isolation transformer.
taz, you didn't do anything a thousand others haven't done. Why wouldn't a fella think that's what his breaker was if that's what he saw and didn't know what it meant.
Ha...just got a service call. Ordinarily I WOULD NOT go on a Saturday afternoon but they're long time customers and it's gonna be down in the 20's tonight. Better go.
Writing about Service Work disturbs The Force. LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by sharps4590
This a pertinent thread for me.
I cast on my deck. One outlet there, to which I connected EVERYTHING: casting pot, mold preheating hot plate and lighting for the cooler nighttime sessions. No problems until I also rigged a feeder pot to the casting pot. If all three elements cycle on, the breaker trips.
I guess the safest thing is to run at least one element on a different circuit, maybe only one each on three circuits?
It depends on the Hotplate, Most old ones are 1500W and it should be run on it's own circuit.
Two Lee pots (6 amps each) will be fine having both on one circuit.
That's my 2¢
Thanks for the suggestion!
You might consider running a circuit to your deck just for this purpose. Depending on how your house is wired its entirely possible that the existing outlet could be on a circuit with one of the rooms in your house, thus having other stuff on it. You can calculate the load of your casting equipment by looking at the name plates. The load should be listed as either amps or watts.
You weren't off the mark there, lightman.
A close gander at the legend on the panel shows that the outside outlet is on a circuit that supplies the whole front of my house: living room, dining room, office, bathroom and deck, about twenty outlets all told, and it's only a fifteen amp breaker. No wonder it tripped.
Its pretty common in residential work to have outlets on a common wall share a circuit. But, thats a lot of stuff on a circuit even though the normal loads in those rooms are pretty light. You can verify what is actually on that circuit pretty easily by turning the breaker off and checking the outlets with a lamp or test light. You might consider getting an estimate on running a dedicated circuit if you plan to continue casting there.Quote:
Originally Posted by kevin c
Here is another thing to keep in mind...you're not going very far with that extension cord so NEVER coil up the extra length while its plugged in. If you do it will act as an inductor and heat up enough to melt the insulation of the coiled part of the extension cord. Leave it lay out straight...or just a few loops loosely coiled or random loop diameters if you have to.
I found this out the hard way before I became an EE. I was an early teen and had a 100 ft cord that I was running a electric fry pan off of our patio. The extra extension cord was wrapped around a "spool" and in less than 5 minutes....pooof.
redhawk
Each circuit breaker should only supply 7 outlets including light switch. When I wired my house in 2001. Ended up using 98 outlets,10 in garage one every 6 feet, just for future use, all 12 gauge wire
Not bragging just listened to older eletriction, except he wanted to soldier all connections, and not use wire nuts.
Thanks for the suggestions, and apologies to namerifrats for the hijack.