Re: breakers for an older panel
It sounds like I may have a similar Crouse Hinds panel to Joe’s panel. My house was built in 1984. This may not add a whole lot to the previous discussion (except for the “ITE” footnote) but I did a bit of research and compiled a list of breakers that appear to be compatible with my panel:
Breaker - Style/Type - Manufacturer
Murray/Crouse Hinds - MP - Siemens
Siemens - QP - Siemens
Cutler Hammer (CH) - BR, CL - Eaton
General Electric - THQL,THQP - Gen Electric
Square D* - HOM (homeline) - Schneider El.
Bryant** - no longer made
Westinghouse** - no longer made
ITE*** - no longer made
*FYI - Schneider Electric (Square D) does NOT recommend using "classified" breakers. Classified breakers are breakers that have been shown by a third party (such as UL - Underwriter Laboratories) to be interchangeable with breakers manufactured by various companies. In this case, Cutler Hammer makes a type CL breaker (see above list) that is UL classified to interchange with the Crouse Hinds breakers that are recommended for my Crouse Hinds panel.
**Bryant was apparently acquired by Westinghouse, which in turn was acquired by Cutler Hammer (Eaton).
***ITE was a company that manufactured circuit breakers. It developed a certain type of breaker known as an I-T-E breaker (inverse time element = I-T-E). (To add to the ITE confusion, Siemens makes an I-T-E type breaker that does not appear to be compatible with my panel, and I-T-E is a Siemens trademark.) The company known as ITE (or known later as the ITE Imperial Co.) was apparently merged with Gould Inc. and then was eventually acquired by ABB.