45
Defective receptacle.
Kill it with fire, before it kills you with fire.
And if it has backstab connections (wires jabbed in back holes that auto-grab them) this is a good time to get rid of em. Because they cause this kind of mischief too.
25
Oh dear. This is a foogly mess.
First, you did the right thing by punching that main panel breaker down onto a single. The problem is with the subpanel; it is very badly misconfigured by a guy who cut a lot of shortcuts.
First, it is illegal to double-tap neutral bar screws like that, unless the panel's labeling or instructions say they are intended ...
19
Chances are about 90% that you have a loose connection in the outlet. If I had to guess, I'd say it is a "stab-in" wire connection on the back of the outlet (as opposed to the wire attaching with a screw), so that when you plug something into that outlet, it pushes the connector tighter onto the wire to complete the connection, but when you remove it, the ...
10
Edit: I wrote this answer before the photo was added. I will defer to Harper’s answer that goes into much detail about the problems.
You have a 240 volt sub panel which was fed from a 240 volt breaker. Now you’re feeding only half of the sub panel with a 120 volt breaker. Sorry, what did you think would happen?
Maybe you don’t understand how dual-leg 240 ...
6
This could happen if the bedroom wall switch controls both the switched outlet and the overhead light, and is also a digital switch without a neutral wire. Try putting incandescent bulbs back in the overhead light, and if that fixes it (I'm assuming they're currently LED or fluorescent), then we have a better idea of what your problem is and how to help.
...
5
You need a double pole breaker. More specifically, you need a breaker that supplies power from both phases on the main panel.
Half your breakers in the sub are now not powered because they were connected to the second phase. It’s not clear what they are tied to now.
5
As far as 40 vs. 50 - that depends on the manufacturer's requirements. The installation instructions clearly state:
A 50 Amp circuit breaker with wire gauge #8 AWG must be used.
So there you have it. 50 Amp - not 40 Amp. 8 AWG - not smaller. You can, of course, use larger wire - e.g., 6 AWG - that is always OK. But you can't use a smaller breaker - my ...
4
For "reasons", the US electrical system normally only has breakers on hot and not neutral. That is why hot goes to breakers while neutral goes to a bar. That is also one of the reasons keeping neutrals matching their hot wires is so important - an overloaded mismatched neutral won't trip a breaker.
GFCI breakers need to monitor neutral in order to detect ...
4
Nope
Nope, nope, nope. This is called paralleling and there are several sections of NEC dedicated to it.
It has at least a half dozen requirements. This reuse scheme violates nearly all of them:
1/0 or larger wire
supply-side distribution cabinet specifically designed for paralleling
supplying cabinet from one source
same size conductors
equal length ...
4
The side screws may have come loose, possibly because the outlet was improperly mounted. Once you've verified the power is off, unscrew the outlet from the box and make sure they haven't come loose. If your outlet isn't screwed securely to the box (or there's a gap that prevents that) you're pushing (or pulling) solely against the wires now. Over time, they ...
3
CEB Ltd. is a now obsolete panel mfr., but they used Cutler Hammer circuit breakers. You can still buy those breakers from Eaton (the new name for Cutler Hammer) and they still use the same part numbers.
Those are "bolt-on" circuit breakers, meaning the way they connect to the panel bus bars is a bolt (screw) instead of a stab-in arrangement. Bolt-on ...
3
If you have all of the other breakers turned off and the ONLY thing that is on is the Main breaker, then there is a problem between the main and the rest of the breakers, or between the meter and the main. If you have even 1kWH of power use when the Main breeaker is open, then that says there is a problem with the meter, socket or wiring after the meter. ...
3
A picture of the main panel would be helpful. But it sounds like at some level - either in the panel or possibly before the panel you "lost a leg" - that would result in 240 --> 120 and 1/2 of your 120 --> 0. If that is really the case, CALL YOUR UTILITY COMPANY as it can be a very serious problem. The big question is whether the problem is caused by ...
2
The issue isn’t about mixing ground and neutral on a single bus in the main panel. That is allowed although it’s preferred to have separate neutral and ground busses, both bonded to the chassis and grounded.
The issue is that most panel busses aren’t rated to have more than one wire per termination point. Some are but most aren’t. The issue, other than just ...
2
It's not necessarily the cause of your problem, but I saw a situation just like it once:
Plug a light into the socket and see that it is "on".
One by one, turn off and on each breaker in the panel.
Go through the entire set of breakers, and the light never goes off.
Eventually discovered cause: one circuit had been wired in a loop, with a separate breaker ...
2
The correct wire for both 50A and 60A circuits is 6 AWG Cu or 4 AWG Al. That is because you are required to pull from the 60 degree C column of NEC 310.15(B)16, which says 55A, and you are allowed to "round up" to the next available breaker size.
At large sizes such as 4 AWG, there is no earthly reason to waste money on copper wire, provided that breaker, ...
1
As others have stated, there are multiple problems with your panel. I would like to point out a few things that have not already been covered.
The reason you had power to switches and outlets even when the circuit breakers were turned off is that you swapped places with the white conductor and the bare ground conductor when you reconnected the feeder (...
1
UBI is a 'replacement' stab-lok sold under various names. Chinese based company.
2/3 failed to trip below the 135% rated current.
Siemens/Murray looks about 2/3 passed at or very closely above.
Eaton, Square D and GE had no test failures.
This is NOT a huge test.
Second image is from testing 3000 breakers that were removed when renovations were done. ...
1
Your profile says you are in Alberta. Federal Pacific in Canada never had the same issues as FPE in the US and never lost their listing ability, eventually separating off as a totally separate company because of what happened to the US, changing their name to Federal Pioneer to try to distance themselves from it. That entire issue doesn't apply to you.
1
Typically you use 6 AWG copper wire for a 60A run, and 1 AWG Aluminum wire for a 100A run. Between the two, #1 aluminum is actually cheaper, though it requires more expensive conduit if you use conduit. (using conduit can be a convenience; Rigid conduit only needs to be trenched 6" of cover instead of 24" for buried cable, and Rigid provides a valid ...
1
I believe the Google words you are looking for are meter main or meter main combination.
As long as the wiring in your house is downstream of a main breaker (not merely disconnect), that is fine. Remember since all the power from your service runs through it, you get to apply the 310.15(B)(7) derate of 83%; your wire only needs to be rated for 166A, not ...
1
This pivots on NEC 110.3(b): You must use equipment according to its labeling and instructions.
If the labeling/instructions say you can do it, then you can do it. For instance my Pushmatic panels have wire capture slots on both sides of each screw on the N-G bar, so it's no trouble at all. My CH panels do not have this.
If your bars are full, the best ...
1
If you want to change a circuit from current-overload protection to GFCI protection, you must trace and locate the neutral wire for that circuit and remove it from the neutral bar. The neutral wire for a circuit is the one that enters the service box through the same opening as the hot wire for that circuit.
Having removed the circuit's neutral wire from ...
1
Leave the ground rods. Install a second set at the new service location.
The IBT only needs to go to ground rods. It doesn't need to go to particular ones.
This plan depends on there being a ground wire between the old and new rods; it's a rare time when metal conduit shell, water pipe, etc. won't do.
There is no penalty for more ground rods than ...
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