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Two Breaker Panels -- Same Circuit Running To Both?
Posted on 1/3/19 at 10:55 pm
Posted on 1/3/19 at 10:55 pm
I just bought an old-ish house, still figuring out how everything is set up. The house has two breaker panels, one for each end of the house. The family room is in the middle of the house.
I was going around the place a few weeks ago before moving in, checking things out, and I noticed in one panel the breaker labeled "family room lights" was tripped. I turned it back on and didn't think much of it. Everything was fine.
Today I was looking in the other panel, and it also has a breaker labeled "family room lights". It was tripped, but the lights were on in the family room. I thought "wtf?" and tried turning it on and it tripped immediately and the lights went out in the family room. I tried again, this time it worked and the lights came back on.
I went back to the first panel, and now that breaker was tripped again. It acted the same as the second one, tripped immediately, then worked, and the breaker in the second panel was tripped now.
What the frick is going on here?
I was going around the place a few weeks ago before moving in, checking things out, and I noticed in one panel the breaker labeled "family room lights" was tripped. I turned it back on and didn't think much of it. Everything was fine.
Today I was looking in the other panel, and it also has a breaker labeled "family room lights". It was tripped, but the lights were on in the family room. I thought "wtf?" and tried turning it on and it tripped immediately and the lights went out in the family room. I tried again, this time it worked and the lights came back on.
I went back to the first panel, and now that breaker was tripped again. It acted the same as the second one, tripped immediately, then worked, and the breaker in the second panel was tripped now.
What the frick is going on here?
2
Posted on 1/3/19 at 10:56 pm to Korkstand
Home inspection should have touched on this I would think...
Posted on 1/3/19 at 10:58 pm to Hogwarts
I don't remember seeing it in the report, but it's worth another look I guess.
Edit: Nope, no mention of it in the report.
Edit: Nope, no mention of it in the report.
This post was edited on 1/3/19 at 11:01 pm
Posted on 1/3/19 at 11:04 pm to Korkstand
It is double fed on separate phases. One breaker is on Phase A, the other Phase B.
If you have to have both breakers on because of an OCD and are too lazy to correct the problem. Just switch the breaker in one of the panels to the other phase. The circuit will be double fed, but on the same phase. Circuit would not trip. Unless it were an GFCI / arc fault breaker or receptacle on the circuit.
If you have to have both breakers on because of an OCD and are too lazy to correct the problem. Just switch the breaker in one of the panels to the other phase. The circuit will be double fed, but on the same phase. Circuit would not trip. Unless it were an GFCI / arc fault breaker or receptacle on the circuit.
Posted on 1/3/19 at 11:05 pm to Hogwarts
quote:
Home inspection should have touched on this I would think...
Thats only if home inspection people know what the frick they are doing. And since they dont, then what we have here shouldn't of been noticed by them at all. They probably noticed the missing screw in the door threshold and subsequently wrote up a one page report on it.
Posted on 1/3/19 at 11:06 pm to Korkstand
I feel ya, man. I also just bought an oldish home with a similar two panels, one on each side. I consider myself a hobby electrician (...yeah, lol) and none of the wiring makes sense to me. For example, there’s four lights in the dining area and no shite, it takes three different switches to turn on the four lights. Similar situation in the living area. Doesn’t make sense.. I also took off both of the panels and there were several breakers flipped on with nothing wired to them. Probably the strangest is the air handler has a plug wired onto it and is plugged into a regular 15 or 20 amp receptacle. Don’t know which because, well, all I had to do was unplug it to wire a new thermostat haha have never seen that.
Posted on 1/3/19 at 11:26 pm to ike221
quote:Makes a lot of sense, thanks. Any idea why it would be done this way, though?
It is double fed on separate phases. One breaker is on Phase A, the other Phase B.
quote:
If you have to have both breakers on because of an OCD and are too lazy to correct the problem. Just switch the breaker in one of the panels to the other phase.
Nope, definitely no OCD issues here. Perfectly fine with leaving one off. However, I've been having a small issue with this same circuit. On 4 or 5 occasions in the past week, the breaker would trip without anyone turning the other one on. I didn't even know the other one was tripped. And as far as I know it's just lights and outlets with nothing plugged into them on this circuit, so I'm sure it wasn't overloaded.
Is it a bad breaker, or could it have something to do with the second breaker being in the tripped position rather than off all this time?
Posted on 1/3/19 at 11:36 pm to mrjduke
quote:My last house was older too, so I know all about the strange things you run into. Years of "hobby electricians" doing their thing and you end up with a mess.
mrjduke
I think this is a pretty nice home, and there are no real dealbreaker issues, but there are just a lot of little knick-knack things that I will get around to fixing eventually. Like out in the back yard there are a few light fixtures for lighting up the bushes and shite, and a couple outlets for the fountain. Well one of the outlets is all busted up, and there's a goddamned mayonnaise jar covering it. Been like that for years apparently. And I still haven't seen the breaker for all that shite. It must be in the third subpanel out back that I saw in that inspector's report.
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