Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Home Improvement Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [electrical-panel]

Panelboards, also known as "electrical panels", "circuit breaker panels", "fuse boxes", "distribution boards", "consumer units", or "load centers". Remember to provide your location. Include photographs of the existing equipment or plans.

Questions about individual overcurrent devices (breakers or fuses) should use the [circuit-breaker] tag.

A panelboard, sometimes called an "electrical panel", "circuit breaker panel", "fuse box", "distribution board", "consumer unit", or "load center", is a busbar or mounting assembly and accompanying dead front enclosure, designed to house overcurrent protection devices (fuses/fuseholders, circuit breakers) and/or circuit disconnecting means (fuseholder disconnects, circuit breakers, snap switches). Other forms of circuit protection (ground fault/residual current, arc fault, and central surge/spike) may be integrated into panelboards as well.

Related tags

  • for questions about overcurrent devices.
  • for questions about using more than one panelboard.
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Half my power out, but firing up an appliance turns it back on

Hoping for some much needed help. The other day my lights flickered and half the power and outlets went out in my home. They have gone and off periodically since then, spontaneously shutting off at times with nothing “triggering” it. My electrician…
Jimmy Vincent
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What is a tandem breaker (aka duplex, cheater, twin, double-stuff, etc.)?

I keep hearing about tandem breakers, and how they won't work with 240V loads and how they should never be used for a multi-wire branch circuit. Aside from those issues... What is a tandem breaker? (note: they can be thrown independently).
Harper - Reinstate Monica
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Why is my voltage dropping with load and why is current flowing on my ground wire?

I am not an electrician, but I've been researching a lot recently to try and figure out why my system is behaving so strangely. Main problem: Lights flickering, sometimes quite severely, and appliances sometimes just turning themselves off or not…
Sasha Aickin
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How did a circuit that was shut off at the breaker almost kill me?

I just had a near-disaster while trying to install new smoke detectors. My house has AC hardwire connections for the smoke detectors. I wasn't sure which circuit the smoke detector AC connection was on, but after going through the breakers one at a…
Kevin
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What on earth is this small wall-mounted computer?

I live in a rented apartment, and there is this little plastic box on the wall that I had been ignoring. Here is what it looks like: There are no markings or holes on the casing. I got curious and opened it up, and was surprised to find a small PCB…
mostsquares
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Should all Federal Pacific panels be replaced?

I understand that Federal Panel Stab Lok breakers have the potential for becoming stuck, overheating, and starting fires. My home has a Federal Pacific panel but no outward markings of being a Stab Lok model, the breakers cannot be identified as I…
STW
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Is it ok to have mixed grounds and neutrals on bars in a breaker box?

So to continue my line of electrical questioning (and perhaps narrow down my flickering light problem), I took a look through the two panels in this house. There is a 200amp main service in the basement, which then feeds up to a 100amp sub-panel…
MarkD
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How can I add an ammeter and/or voltmeter to my home breaker panel?

In my professional life, I work in datacenters and all of our PDUs have ammeter displays on them. Of course they do: we always want to know how many amps a PDU is using. But in my house, nobody has any idea. As far as I can tell, there is no such…
user227963
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How did my ground and neutral become energized by a short in the buried main line?

Long post, because I'm not sure what information is critical. The ultimate question is what, if anything, I need to do to ensure there are no hazardous conditions in my home. Friday night, the lights flickered for 10 seconds and then the house lost…
Larry
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Why is there a jumper between these circuit breakers?

I was replacing defective/broken outlets in my folks' house this week, in preparation to sell it. So I went to the power panel and hit the appropriate breaker for the area I was working in. No problem until I got to the laundry room receptacles.…
William Brown
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Why would two circuit breakers be connected inside the service panel?

I was trying to locate the circuit breaker for an outlet in my garage and found a truly baffling setup. Two breakers control the same outlet (both plugs). After some head scratching, I opened the breaker box and found (see pic) breaker 4 (20 amp)…
John Miele
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Panel breakers are alternately 90 V and 140 V

Everything in the house is acting up. The fridge has melted ice, the radio is acting strange, etc. I multimetered the panel box and each breaker is either 90 V or 140 V alternately. I have a plan to upgrade the box from 100 A to 200 A as the meter…
drmadef
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My inflatable hot tub says "don't use with an extension cord"... but can I?

Sadly they don't explain WHY not to use it with an extension cord. I wonder if it's to do with the risk of having such connections outside in the elements? The cord it comes with is 7m long, and where we want to site it is 6m from our outhouse. I've…
Codemonkey
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Can a 40amp breaker be used safely and without issue with a 40amp device on 6AWG wire?

We are installing a Cooktop that calls for a 40amp circuit. I was given 6AWG wire (instead of the 8AWG wire I asked for) by mistake. The electrician saw the 6AWG wire (that I had already run) and used a 50amp breaker. The Cooktop installer requires…
Steve Sensabaugh
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What items in a house can potentially be damaged by shutting them off at the circuit breaker?

Are there certain items in a house (anything from a computer to a furnace) that can be damaged by shutting off its circuit at the electrical panel? If so, must one avoid turning off that circuit at all times, or should one simply take certain…
Fil
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