Return to the Electrical Wiring Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
Two circuits wired together somewhere
| | |
Posted by flufykat (My Page) on Mon, Jun 29, 09 at 20:10
| I've read and learned a lot from these forums and I thank you--and I have one question.
I'm trying to finish my basement of my new home and thus I'm planning on intalling some electrical outlets. First, I decided to map out the current electrical load of each circuit in the breaker box.
I found that circuits #7(30A) and #19(20A) are apparently both feeding the same string of receptacles, although they aren't tied together at the breaker box. I can only assume they're tied together in another place in the house. I need to turn off *both* circuits to take the power away from the string. The string has 14 receptacles (all 15A duplex).
So my question is, is this normal or ...good? Should two circuits be tied together somewhere outside the breaker box? I don't think I need that much amperage supplying that string. Half the receptacles are in the attic anyway and are never used.
I don't think this has much to do with my basement but since I found it i'd like to know if i should do something about it or just leave it be. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Two circuits wired together somewhere
| | |
| Find and cure the problem. Look for a receptacle box which has 3 cables entering it. The interconnection may be elsewhere, but the 3 cables would be a likely point. And it is even possible that it is interconnected at multiple points. |
RE: Two circuits wired together somewhere
| | |
| No it's not normal and it is very bad. In addition to what bus_driver said, I'd start with the 30A circuit. It's not going to be (well not supposed to be) a general purpose circuit feeding multiple receptacles, so finding where it goes and where it may stop along the way is probably the best way to investigate. |
RE: Two circuits wired together somewhere
| | |
| Regular receptacles are not permitted to be on a 30 amp circuit. When you find the cross connect you also need to change the breaker to 15 or 20 amp or eliminate it and put it all on one circuit. |
RE: Two circuits wired together somewhere
| | |
| Are any of the receptacles GFCIs? I found a similar situation in a restaurant where the new owner had decided he needed GFCIs everywhere in the kitchen and had to do it himself. Some of the original receptacles were split-wired on two circuits. He ended up hooking one circuit to LINE and the other to LOAD. You could have a similar situation. Unrelated to your case, but fairly humorous (to me): the duplex he replaced was 240V 2wire+G for large toasters. He replaced it with a regular 120V GFCI, and the two hots were in opposite directions. The results were: 1- (original complaint) "everything I plug into that outlet blows up"
2- GFCI was very hot (and non-functioning)
3- Turning on one breaker caused the other (which was in another panel) to trip. That place was (and probably still is) a disaster. I'm sure terribletom has seen it. |
RE: Two circuits wired together somewhere
| | |
| In addition, he upsized the breaker to 30A from 15 because it tripped so much? |
RE: Two circuits wired together somewhere
| | |
| When the rough was done on my new house, the electrician crossed the wiring of two switch boxes. (They were back-to-back on the same wall, and he got some drops from the ceiling mixed up.) They were on different circuits, and the cross-wiring wound up back feeding one circuit from the other. I was doing the finishing myself, and I knew I had a problem when I installed a switch on a circuit that didn't yet have a breaker installed, and the lights lit up. *_* |
Post a Follow-Up
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Electrical Wiring Forum
|
|
|
