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I'm presently in a rental situation. It's a single family home that's been converted into multiple units. Each floor is on its own panel with its own meter. There are three panels total and each is a 16 breaker GE box.

The panel I am concerned with is supposed to be running a 240v to the dryer in the basement. When I moved in, it was on a double pole breaker. Only one terminal at the dryer was getting 120v, though. After moving the breaker around I discovered that only spots 2a/2b and 4a/4b on the left side of the breaker are providing a load to the dryer. I also discovered that the breaker labeled "main" doesn't appear to control the power to any other breakers in the panel.

What does seem to control the power flowing to the 30a breakers are the two single pole 20a breakers in positions 4a/4b on the right side. (The main occupies positions 1a/1b/2a/2b). I am thoroughly confused. It's an older home, but none of the wiring here seems to make sense. Does anyone have any thoughts? I'll be happy to provide anything additional.
 
Is that panel supplied from an individual PoCo meter, or is it just a check-meter supplied as a sub-panel from elsewhere? It sounds like one hot to the panel is dead, although the fact that it enters via two single-pole 20A breakers makes it sound like a temporary hookup to back-feed the panel, perhaps from a 120V circuit that never had another hot, rather than the real supply it is supposed to have. Beware the possibility that someone has tried to pick up the two hots from different circuits.

Yes, pictures would help.
 
I'm presently in a rental situation. It's a single family home that's been converted into multiple units. Each floor is on its own panel with its own meter. There are three panels total and each is a 16 breaker GE box.

The panel I am concerned with is supposed to be running a 240v to the dryer in the basement. When I moved in, it was on a double pole breaker. Only one terminal at the dryer was getting 120v, though. After moving the breaker around I discovered that only spots 2a/2b and 4a/4b on the left side of the breaker are providing a load to the dryer. I also discovered that the breaker labeled "main" doesn't appear to control the power to any other breakers in the panel.

What does seem to control the power flowing to the 30a breakers are the two single pole 20a breakers in positions 4a/4b on the right side. (The main occupies positions 1a/1b/2a/2b). I am thoroughly confused. It's an older home, but none of the wiring here seems to make sense. Does anyone have any thoughts? I'll be happy to provide anything additional.
Dhwilson I’m assuming you have a meter so do you have 240 phase to phase on your main breaker and the same thing on your dryer also
 
I'm presently in a rental situation. It's a single family home that's been converted into multiple units. Each floor is on its own panel with its own meter. There are three panels total and each is a 16 breaker GE box.

The panel I am concerned with is supposed to be running a 240v to the dryer in the basement. When I moved in, it was on a double pole breaker. Only one terminal at the dryer was getting 120v, though. After moving the breaker around I discovered that only spots 2a/2b and 4a/4b on the left side of the breaker are providing a load to the dryer. I also discovered that the breaker labeled "main" doesn't appear to control the power to any other breakers in the panel.

What does seem to control the power flowing to the 30a breakers are the two single pole 20a breakers in positions 4a/4b on the right side. (The main occupies positions 1a/1b/2a/2b). I am thoroughly confused. It's an older home, but none of the wiring here seems to make sense. Does anyone have any thoughts? I'll be happy to provide anything additional.
djwilson welcome to the forum and it sounds to me like your panel is arranged that every other stab is a phase so at you dryer you say you are getting 120vac instead of 240vac. I bet you have slim line breakers in you panel. If you put 2 full size breakers you will get 240vac but the slim double pole won’t work unless you relocate it to a good space. Remember that the same phase will not read together. If you had 240vac at one time someone has been moving breakers around which explains why you don’t have 240vac now
 
I'm presently in a rental situation. It's a single family home that's been converted into multiple units. Each floor is on its own panel with its own meter. There are three panels total and each is a 16 breaker GE box.

The panel I am concerned with is supposed to be running a 240v to the dryer in the basement. When I moved in, it was on a double pole breaker. Only one terminal at the dryer was getting 120v, though. After moving the breaker around I discovered that only spots 2a/2b and 4a/4b on the left side of the breaker are providing a load to the dryer. I also discovered that the breaker labeled "main" doesn't appear to control the power to any other breakers in the panel.

What does seem to control the power flowing to the 30a breakers are the two single pole 20a breakers in positions 4a/4b on the right side. (The main occupies positions 1a/1b/2a/2b). I am thoroughly confused. It's an older home, but none of the wiring here seems to make sense. Does anyone have any thoughts? I'll be happy to provide anything additional.
Dg what you have is a simple answer, when you say 1a and 1b is the same phase you breaker needs to be on 1 and 2 stabs which will give you 240 vac. You have a 200 amp main breaker which controls all power to the buss, the breakers are branch circuits feeding other loads. Other than the 200 amp main, breakers do not control other breakers within your panel
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I'm presently in a rental situation. It's a single family home that's been converted into multiple units. Each floor is on its own panel with its own meter. There are three panels total and each is a 16 breaker GE box.

The panel I am concerned with is supposed to be running a 240v to the dryer in the basement. When I moved in, it was on a double pole breaker. Only one terminal at the dryer was getting 120v, though. After moving the breaker around I discovered that only spots 2a/2b and 4a/4b on the left side of the breaker are providing a load to the dryer. I also discovered that the breaker labeled "main" doesn't appear to control the power to any other breakers in the panel.

What does seem to control the power flowing to the 30a breakers are the two single pole 20a breakers in positions 4a/4b on the right side. (The main occupies positions 1a/1b/2a/2b). I am thoroughly confused. It's an older home, but none of the wiring here seems to make sense. Does anyone have any thoughts? I'll be happy to provide anything additional.
If you are using the slim line breakers that’s why you just have 120vac
 
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Double pole THQP (slim style GE breakers) must be verified that they are grabbing opposite legs in order to get 240 volts. There is a rejection feature from what I've seen, but often times that doesn't stop someone from getting a double pole across the same stabs sharing the same leg.
 

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