Need to wire Fuse Box for 220 (Electric Dryer) 2 open fuse holes available. What is the best way to do this?
It is difficult to say with the information you gave. Your 2 open fuse holes need to be on separate phases of your fuse box. If they are on the same phase, you will only get 120 volts. To test this, install a couple of fuses and measure the voltage across each terminal. If you have 220 - 250 volts you are good to go. I would also test between each terminal and the neutral and also the ground. Here you should have 110 - 125 volts. Before I can say if you can do this or not, I would like to see a picture of the inside of the fuse box. A dryer requires 30 amps of power at 240 volts. For this you need a #10 AWG wire. I suggest installing a 10/3 NM cable with ground. However, NM cable or romex can't be installed where subject to physical damage. If you are installing your dryer in the basement and you plan to run the wire along the concrete wall, romex will not work. Here you would need to install conduit and individual #10 AWG conductors. You should wire this per the 2005 NEC. This requires a 30 amp, 250 volt, 3-pole, 4-wire (4-prong) receptacle. This will also require a 4-wire dryer cord. When installing your dryer cord, be sure to remove the bonding strap or wire that connects between the dryer's frame and the neutral terminal on the dryer. This step is very important when changing to a 4-wire dryer cord to prevent electrical shocks. Use the contact link to email me a picture of your fuse box. I also need to know how you are going to install your wiring for the dryer. For example, run wire out of fuse box and up 5 feet to floor joist, over 10 feet and up through the floor into your laundry room. This will help me determine what type of wire or conduit you need. If you need further assistance, please visit - http://electricalblog.gilchrist-electric...
2. What are the circuit breakers in your house rated at? What do the breakers do?
really depends o n what breakers you have installed an old unit would have two 30amp ones, the glass screw in type. but if your unit is say less than ten years old, it will have 15 amp. 20 amp and 30amp, for the stove, maybe 50amp,and 60 hot water tank, welder etc. they work by supplying elc, fro m the main box, they are set at say 20amp ,to cover maybe the front room, kitchen area etc. lights etc , when they get so hot ,or over loaded they shut down ,preventing a fire , so they act as a go between the main box ,and you ...... the higher the amp the more they hold, as an idea, most front rooms have 5 boxes, = 20amp breaker, and most rooms have they own breckers, so if one over loads, it wont shut down the whole house,
Will it do any harm to run a 220 volt water heater on a 110 volt line?
My 110 volt water heater sprung a leak today. I happen to have another but it is a 220 volt unit. It is twice the size of my other. I installed it today before I realized that the voltage requirements are different. It is running now and heating water(slowly). Will it ever get up to temp? Will it do any damage? Can I convert my old 110 line to 220? I realize that if it does work on 110, it will slowly, but that's better than none!!! What gauge wire is needed to run 220v? I want to do this safely and cheaply. If I need to I can run it from the same line as my dryer I guess, but I would rather convert the existing circuit to 220/240 volts
Can I use double pole breakers to connect a 40 AMP Range, 30 AMP Dryer, and a 20 AMP water heater?
Anything that is 240V will require a 2 pole breaker. If there is ever an over current, there is no guarantee that the over current will be present on both legs, so by using a double pole breaker, you are ensuring that if an over current happens, both legs will trip. Using only single pole breakers means that one leg could still be energized when you do not want it to be. For a typical house in the US, a single pole breaker provides only 120V. A double pole breaker provides 240V.
Is it safe to replace a 30 amp circuit breaker with a 15 amp one?
The question is very interesting and a valid one. In fact, few days back I faced a similar phenomenon at my home which propelled me to think over it. This is for sure that we need to take a logical decision to cope up with this situation.A 30A/ 15A breaker by its rating is designed to handle a continuous current of 30A/ 15A and along with that it offers protection against any unwanted rush of current in the circuit. In house-hold application unwanted current can be because of fault in wiring, fault in equipment and overloading. Now overloading of any house hold electrical item is not that common (but may happen). The unwanted current in that case will be the fault currents mostly. A breaker is having an inverse characteristics i.e. it takes less time to brake higher current and high time to brake smaller current.Now, if we select a higher rating breaker than requirement then it is most likely that the breaker will not trip during overload or even sometimes under fault also. This will propel burning of instruments/ wiring etc. and subsequently when earth fault occurs because of burning, the current becomes significantly high tripping the breaker.So, what I understand is that your electrician is giving you a good choice. But to be sure you need to calculate the connected load of your home. Add all the instrument powers (total Watt) and then divide the same by 240V (assuming 240V available at your end) & 0.85 PF (this is a good assumption) you will get the total current approximately. If this current is coming less than 15A then without thinking twice you should replace the 30A breaker with a 15A one.Thanks for the question.
What happens when a 60 amp breaker is used in place of a 70?
By using a smaller breaker, you have limited the circuits the breaker feeds to 60 amps.Putting in a smaller breaker is acceptable if your load does not trip the breaker which is unlikely. The existing wiring will handle more, so there is not hazard of overloading the wiring.A 70 amp breaker is most often used in the feed for a large load or in a subpanel feeding smaller circuits. I put one in my detached garage recently. The box feed by the 70 amp breaker has 6 slots. I used two of the slots for 220 circuit and the rest have 15 amp 120 volt breakers for lighting and outlets.If I replaced the 70 amp breaker with a 60 amp, the only difference would be that I am now limited to a total of 60 amps in my garage. If I was using my welder and my air compressor tried to start, it might blow the breaker, but all the wiring and equipment would be unharmed.
What is the difference between a single pole and a double pole MCB?
Single Pole MCB is used to break ‘single phase’ and Double pole is used to break ‘phase and neutral’.In other words, single pole controls 1 live wire and it trips the respective line when the fault current exceeds the pickup setting and double pole can control 2 live wires/ one live & one neutral.For an example, a refrigerator is connected to your power supply of 230 V (Rated) by means of Double pole MCB. If any one of the live wire gets short circuited, the other one which is connected to MCB also gets tripped with that. In other case, if you connect two single pole circuits, and if one live wire gets short circuited, it will be dangerous.
What is the difference between a 100 AMP electric panel and a 200 AMP electric panel?
While the other answers accurately answer the question, I'm guessing that you are asking because you have probably seen something like "New 200 Amp panel" in a real estate listing.As Kelly Kinkade says, a 200 amp panel is usually physically larger than a 100 amp panel, allowing you to add more branch circuits. And it will handle a larger combined load (200 amps as opposed to 100 amps).However all of this is predicated on what kind of service you have. In electrical parlance, the service is what connection you have from your house to the electrical grid. This will either be undergroundor through a service entrance like this:In all cases, the size of your service will determine the maximum current you will draw. Houses built in the '40s and '50s will typically have smaller services, 60 Amp is not uncommon. In the '60s and '70s, 100 Amp was common. And since the '80s, 200 Amp is standard.Just as an aside, the main consumers of high amperage will be high-powered electric heaters. An electric stove will consume up to 50 amps, a dryer up to 40 amps, and an electric hot water heater 30 amps. So you can see that if you are having a pool party, it's not unreasonable that your load right there is 120 amps -- which is why a 200 amp service becomes necessary. If you have electric heat, you can see even higher. A few years ago when I was house-hunting I saw a house with a 400 Amp service, and my grandfather (an electrician) once put in a 600 Amp service for a big fancy estate in New Hampshire.
What size breaker do i need for 1 hp 9.7 amp well pump?
I changed the service panel that my water well pump was connected to and now it seems that the pump pumps much faster than before. Could the breaker be too big. It had a 30 amp breaker connected to it before so I just used the same one. The difference between the two panels is that the old one only had two slots for two double pole breakers and this new one has like six. The old one also had a 100 amp breaker going to some old trailer wiring which I just disconnected and took out.