With friends like these.... who needs enemies?

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dejeud

Member
Got a call from a former neighbor. She had the pool pump breaker tripping, turned out she had a bad pump.
But that's not the story.
She has a little hair do setup in her house and while I'm there she proceeds to tell me that she used to have trouble with the breakers tripping (1800W hair dryer, and 1600W dryer plugged in the general circuits receptacles).
So, a "friend" of her changed the breakers from 15A, not to 20A, but to 30A.
I just couldn't help myself and told her : "As much as you might get insulted by this, he's not your friend".
 

knoppdude

Senior Member
Location
Sacramento,ca
I think you told her the right thing, plus it was a good opportunity to help someone understand the dangers of electricity, and the need to used trained electrical contractors to perform such work. We must help them understand, one person at a time about the importance of performing the work correctly, or the electricity will do it for us.
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
While calculating amperage use on a circuit is basic addition it always seems to be a difficult concept to convey to those not in the trade. When homeowners see a receptacle they assume you can plug as many appliances into it as possible. Sometimes it not enough to just have a duplex receptacle available and they end up buying 3 or 6 circuit splitters or power strips and running their refrigerators, TV's vacuums, etc all from the same outlet.

BTW, as far as I know 30 amps is the highest s/p breaker you can buy but I once did work in a tenement building that had fuse panels. One apt. dweller got tired of replacing 15 amp fuses and I found a 40 amp screw-in fuse in its place. Got you beat by 10 amps.:)
 

Twoskinsoneman

Senior Member
Location
West Virginia, USA NEC: 2020
Occupation
Facility Senior Electrician
While calculating amperage use on a circuit is basic addition it always seems to be a difficult concept to convey to those not in the trade. When homeowners see a receptacle they assume you can plug as many appliances into it as possible. Sometimes it not enough to just have a duplex receptacle available and they end up buying 3 or 6 circuit splitters or power strips and running their refrigerators, TV's vacuums, etc all from the same outlet.

BTW, as far as I know 30 amps is the highest s/p breaker you can buy but I once did work in a tenement building that had fuse panels. One apt. dweller got tired of replacing 15 amp fuses and I found a 40 amp screw-in fuse in its place. Got you beat by 10 amps.:)

Still better than a penny behind the fuse. :)
 

norcal

Senior Member
BTW, as far as I know 30 amps is the highest s/p breaker you can buy

but I once did work in a tenement building that had fuse panels. One apt. dweller got tired of replacing 15 amp fuses and I found a 40 amp screw-in fuse in its place. Got you beat by 10 amps.:)

There are single pole breakers as large as 60A* avail. , TG though that big box stores only stock up to 30A.

*I do have a couple of 100A SP breakers floating around, but they are not residential type breakers.
 

satcom

Senior Member
There are single pole breakers as large as 60A* avail. , TG though that big box stores only stock up to 30A.

*I do have a couple of 100A SP breakers floating around, but they are not residential type breakers.

Yes my supply house has the 1P Breakers up to 70A in stock and we pay a lot less then any box store price.
 
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jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
While calculating amperage use on a circuit is basic addition it always seems to be a difficult concept to convey to those not in the trade. When homeowners see a receptacle they assume you can plug as many appliances into it as possible. Sometimes it not enough to just have a duplex receptacle available and they end up buying 3 or 6 circuit splitters or power strips and running their refrigerators, TV's vacuums, etc all from the same outlet.

BTW, as far as I know 30 amps is the highest s/p breaker you can buy but I once did work in a tenement building that had fuse panels. One apt. dweller got tired of replacing 15 amp fuses and I found a 40 amp screw-in fuse in its place. Got you beat by 10 amps.:)

Not sure about now, but Square D used to make a QO 150 and 140. Not very common. I saw one of each in use over the years.

Never saw a 40A screw in fuse. Just about everything imaginable has been made somewhere, sometime, hasn't it?

Looks like the jack legs have come close to winning the war now. Maybe we should all find some other business. Firefighting should be a safe bet, with the work we are seeing out there. :mad:
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I've wired a plug-in refrigeration unit that required 30 amps at 120 vac. I can't imagine what would require 120 volts at 40-150 amps though.:confused:
 

nhfire77

Senior Member
Location
NH
Looks like the jack legs have come close to winning the war now. Maybe we should all find some other business. Firefighting should be a safe bet, with the work we are seeing out there. :mad:



Yea, about that... Professional Firefighters are under attack everywhere right now. But on the upside, you get to tell all the ladies: "Why yes, I am a fireman." And your cop buddys get no love because they are the jerks that just gave that woman a ticket.

Know why god created firemen? So cops would have someone to look up to.

(don't tell a cop this, they'll either cry, or arrest you) :)
 

jdsmith

Senior Member
Location
Ohio
We used QO170's on a solar project about 5 years ago. We had 4 PV inverters that fed the panel with 2 pole 30A breakers, but our two battery inverters were each rated ~50A, 120V, so we used a QO170 for each one in the panel.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
While calculating amperage use on a circuit is basic addition it always seems to be a difficult concept to convey to those not in the trade. When homeowners see a receptacle they assume you can plug as many appliances into it as possible. Sometimes it not enough to just have a duplex receptacle available and they end up buying 3 or 6 circuit splitters or power strips and running their refrigerators, TV's vacuums, etc all from the same outlet.

BTW, as far as I know 30 amps is the highest s/p breaker you can buy but I once did work in a tenement building that had fuse panels. One apt. dweller got tired of replacing 15 amp fuses and I found a 40 amp screw-in fuse in its place. Got you beat by 10 amps.:)

QO series goes up to 70 amp in the catalog.

I've wired a plug-in refrigeration unit that required 30 amps at 120 vac. I can't imagine what would require 120 volts at 40-150 amps though.:confused:

May have hard time finding a single load but could easily run into a feeder needing a breaker of that size, even though it would be better design to use 120/240 volt feeder if possible.
 

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
I've wired a plug-in refrigeration unit that required 30 amps at 120 vac. I can't imagine what would require 120 volts at 40-150 amps though.:confused:

I worked in a plant with a saw booth, 120V, 40A. Bandsaw & carriage that moved the object being cut. 30 some amp starting load, something like 10 amps or less running load.

I saw the QO150 (50 amps) in a panel. I forget what it controlled, not something I was working on. Being so strange, I should have looked at it closer, looked at equipment, etc. That was in the 70's & I didn't realize how rare it was at the time. I was in my 1st year. The co. where I worked had it's own warehouse & I remember them having a QO150 also.

Nothing was 150 amps. If they had one that large, it would be a QO1150. I am sure no one makes a SP 150 amp breaker. Now watch one show up.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
*I do have a couple of 100A SP breakers floating around, but they are not residential type breakers.

would love to see them if you can post the picture!

Rural POCO's usually supply a disconnect of some type at pole where meter is installed. Some of these are enclosed circuit breakers.

Some older ones around are two single pole 100 amp circuit breakers. They are not plug on devices they have lugs on line and load end. Why they don't have handle ties between the two poles - I don't know. I think there are a few different brands and I have seen some that POCO has replaced just the breaker (only on one pole) when old one failed, with a replacement that looked like it was new.

I have never seen these breakers on new services with new equipment, but they are still in use. Pretty sure I have seen them with the names Murray and Wadsworth, and it seems like there is at least one or two more names I have seen with a similar device. Some are stand alone breaker in enclosure and some are a combination meter and breaker all in one enclosure. Many of them are 50 or more years old.
 
I have a 70 amp single pole breaker in my house. I use it on a 12 volt panel to feed my inverter. Thirteen years in the biz and I think I installed 1 30 amp single pole once or twice but nothing bigger (except at my house). I had this dream last year that I was at the supply house asking for a 1000 amp single pole breaker. In the dream I was kind of frustrated that I couldnt find one but when I woke up I thought it was hilarious.
 

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
1 place I worked, we installed a SP transformer for some special equipment, incoming was 120 v, 60 amps. We used a double pole 60 A breaker & just terminated 1 side.
 
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