I had a similar problem with GM headlamp switches, the older ones mounted on the dash. These, too, have a thermal breaker built into the switch, also has the dimmer potentiometer. These swithces were put together with crimp tabs and some of those tabs were part of the electrical circuit. After a few of years, the plastic parts shrink and the tabs in the electrical circuit loosen. (In my opinion, a bad design detail.) These heat and causes the breaker to trip. Headlamps may flicker too. On mine, it would trip out when on high beams, but was ok on low beams. As luck would have it, mine failed at dusk while I was on the way home. An oncomming police curiser saw my headlamps acting up and I was fiddling with the high-low beams. He turned around and chased me down - thought I was signaling him. LOL - I had some explaining to do. I made it home with the low beams. My solution was to replace the switch since I already had another one. However, I experimented and found that I could repair the unit by soldering the offending connectors, only the ones in the electrical circuit. I chose to continue with the new switch and keep the repaired one for a backup. One never knows if he messed up the thermal trip calibration while soldering. That shouldn't happen if the solder job was done quick enough without overheating the internal parts. By the way, did you find a problem in removing the switch from the dash? The knob and shaft won't pass through the hole, and the knob is permanently fastened to the shaft. There is a trick. The knob and shaft will come out of the switch. Somewhere in the switch housing is a small release button, usually on top. Press this down and the shaft will pull out.

joed, knowing that it changes stuff then. can i use 1 cct for inside the building for power and lights, and take the other and put an outlet on the OUTSIDE of the building? bigbird quoted the cec about gfci protection, what does the nec say about it? if it changes anything i called it a garage, but it wont be used for parking... as it is 100' from the house, all the way on the back of the property line with no driveway to it. maybe a better term would be "barn". it has a 1 car bay with a 20x10 workshop next to it. *IF* i can only use 1 cct, do all the outlets need to be gfi protected? how many outlets/lights will be allowed on the cct?

Thanks all. I won the battle on this one with just a heated email to the GC. The fact is, I am paying for 200amp service upgrade (I know how much it should cost because I bid all the work to 3 GCs before choosing this one so I've got 3 prices for the service upgrade) and GC and/or electrician was pocketing a few hundred extra by using load calcs to justify 125 amp. I am sure all of these calculations were done correctly and 125 amp is totally fine for this house...now. The fact is, they were never shared with me or discussed with me and if they had been I would have pointed out all these other planned expansions that are not part of the current scope of work and rejected the specification. Again, I appreciate everyone's input and feel much more knowledgable about his topic. I may be overkilling with 200, but it is highly conceivable that 125 will be tapped with our future plans. This will be our house for a long time--happy to pay for quality electrical work, but I don't want future invoices to ever say anything about "service upgrade" again.

I personaly think we are talking about 2 differnt things For some price rules. I have been wiring for about 30 years. Here we have SqD, Westinghouse, Frank Adams, GE, Siemans and a couple of other names I dont use. I bought a home with a new GE panel and removed it to install a SqDQO before we moved in. SQD if any thing may be a little touchy with tripping quick. Rather that than not at all. And my wife likes the red window identifying the triped breaker. At our local parts house we had a demo a few years back that had a receptical fed by several name brand breakers. The point was to stick a paper clip into the recep and check the reaction time of the breakers. The SqD triped immediatly. The GE, Westinghouse and others fed the current to the point the paper clip burnt in 2. I thought that was a fluke and returned with 3 breakers from my truck. All tested the same. I buy SqD. I have been involved in other instances where GE fed the short and did not trip. With the new SqDHOM series you get the same tripping characteristics with out the red window and price competative with the others