House Electrical Guru`s...a question or two, ok three

[SuperFudge]

Hello all,
(ill apologize now to the moderators, if this is in the wrong spot)

I am almost completed my fishroom, and have been installing external electrical to feed this room.

I have a basic understanding of the household electrical, but i have a few questions that seem to have me stalled....

I wish to run a line out of my breaker panel,.. where i am wanting to draw this power from there exists an empty double pole breaker. (2x 15 amp)
There is a pin connecting the two switches, so they only turn on or off together.

My question is, if i run a single line (15 amp) out of there, using only one side of the breaker, does this have any effect on how that breaker pops if there is a problem ?.

What would you change or is it ok that way?

Heres #2,

I have an existing armoured cable line running through the fish room, this line was exposed in the garage before the fishroom was built.

This line has 3 wires (14-3?), it is also connected to a double pole breaker (2x15) also with a connecting pin.

There are two Hot wires it appears, red and black each into its own side of the double pole.....with the white going to the nuetral bus.

Does this mean this line is 220?

What is making this confusing for me, is the only things this line is feeding is two unused outlets on another wall...wich are 110...??

Any thoughts on that are welcome and appreciated.

Heres #3,

There is another (pre-existing, but unused right now) cable that i intend to use for all my lighting.
This line has 4 wires, and in the breaker box it appears the green is a ground, white again to the bus.
The hots(red,black) are going to individual single pole 15 amp breakers.

Is this intended for two individual lines, just being in one cable?

Any thoughts would be welcome on the subject..as well on anyone who may be for hire to Pm me if interested in a small side job.


Thank you, Marc.

[muck]

1. You could use the 2 x 15 amp breaker. If you only use one side of it it will still trip like normal. Chances are you will not need to use this though since you have 4 other circuits to use. (see below)

2. All this means is you have two seperate circuits both 110V. One being the red wire and the other being the black wire. They just happen to share the same neutral. If one circuit trips for some reason the other will as well because the breaker is connected.

3. This would be the same as number 2. Only difference being is that if one trips the other will not because the breakers are not connected. The green wire most likely is a ground. Check if it goes to a ground bar in the panel.


Sounds like you will have lots of dedicated circuits for your fish room.
Id come help you out but its a bit of a drive for me...

[BMW Rider]

I concur with Muck on this. The joined breakers are used for either split 110 receptacles, where each plug on the outlet is powered seperately as in a kitchen pluig, or for 220v use. The purpose is to ensure that if the breaker is tripped or shut down, both power sources, which go to the same location, are shut off for saftey reasons. Don't want to be opening a box to find there is another source of power there to suprise you. They can be used seperatly with no problem, ecept it could be a nuisance having both trip off together. The 14/3 cable is the lead that will power such an outlet. both can use the same neutral, so there is no need to run a pair of 14/2 wires. What I would do is switch that four lead wire onto the unused paired breaker for the above noted reasons, then use the individual ones for your new fish room circuits.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Fudge

There are two Hot wires it appears, red and black each into its own side of the double pole.....with the white going to the nuetral bus.

Does this mean this line is 220?


Thank you, Marc.

Red and black coloration is used to show 220V and if it is split to feed two 110 breakers some one has used 220 wire (or 3 strand if I am corectly assuming you have 1 copper, 1 black 1, red and 1 white wire in the bundle) now the good part, depending on what you want to do you have the capability of running 220 15 amp to that location or doing what I did and keeping the power split into 110 but running it to say 4 different GFI outlets that will trip independantly of each other. this will alow you to spread out lights, pumps, heaters so if you have a problem with 1 the rest will stay going and your tank won't die.

Steve

[BCWolfen]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

Red and black coloration is used to show 220V and if it is split to feed two 110 breakers some one has used 220 wire (or 3 strand if I am corectly assuming you have 1 copper, 1 black 1, red and 1 white wire in the bundle) now the good part, depending on what you want to do you have the capability of running 220 15 amp to that location or doing what I did and keeping the power split into 110 but running it to say 4 different GFI outlets that will trip independantly of each other. this will alow you to spread out lights, pumps, heaters so if you have a problem with 1 the rest will stay going and your tank won't die.

Steve

Almost Steve, but a bit off. You've got the right application and thoughts, but the wire is not incorrectly used 220V cable.

220V Cable has 3 wires. Red and black which is your 220V Line to line and your ground.
110V (14/2) Cable has 3 wires white & Black which is your 110V Line to neutral and your ground.

What Fudge has is definately (14/3) 110V wire on a split circuit. There are 4 wires: red, black and white and bare. Red to white makes circuit #1 @ 110V Black to white makes circuit #2 @ 110V and of course the ground wire.

This wire (along with 2 threeway switches) is also often used when you are wiring in a light that can be controlled from 2 separate switches (ie top and bottom of stairs)

Fudgeefinately use the existing wire. Red to one side of the breaker, Black to the other side, Neutral to your common neutral bar in the breaker panel. (and don't foget your ground) The benefit is you can wire 2 GFI outlets with each one carry a load from a different circuit. They will share the neutral. Another good option for extra plugs is to mount these 2 into a 4 plug box and piggyback another standard outlet off each of the GFI's. That way you have 8 plugs - 4 on each circuit and each of teh 2 standard plugs is also protected by the GFI.

hehe Just more wiring fun!!!

[Tangman]

Hey , Fudge , I am an Electrician
For get all other posts other than's MUCKs ,he has it right!

[muck]

Originally Posted by Tangman

Hey , Fudge , I am an Electrician
For get all other posts other than's MUCKs ,he has it right!

[SuperFudge]

Thanks Alot for the input guys !


I think i understand how Questions 1 and 3 work now.

Ok, i think im getting this...

It turns out both #2 and #3 questions cables have 4 wires total, red,black,white and a bare ground for the former, and red, black,white and green for the latter.

So i am understanding these are identical except for the green wire instead of bare and i have a total of four circuits.

Heres what i would like to do with Question #2`s cable,

I am kinda gun-shy with this one, as it continues on into a wall and is lost to sight.... and im about 90% sure it is only feeding two standard 110 recepticles.

I Have all Baseboard heating in the house, so i was scared this one may have been 220v feeding one or two...But, i cant find anything that stops working when this breaker is tripped except for the 2 plugs.

Now, I have already split the line and was planning a junction there, in this junction, i was going to just feed a line of 4 recepticles on the fishroom side.

Now If i get this correctly, It wont matter how its wired then downstream.(110 or 220)
i can still tap into one of the hots(black or red) or both (for two individual circuits) and the whites...say, using the red and white to a recepticle or two, and likewise for black and white it will give me 1 or 2- 110v lines.... And then placed back in line to go back into the wall again.

And is this a safe thing to do? (i like my house Un-charred )

Thanks again fellas,

[Tangman]

Yes that sounds fine but if you don't use those other two plugs ( down the line as you said) I wouldn't bother reconecting them , to sort of make sure you don't over load the two 15 amp breakers . Ofcoarse I don't know how many pumps, lights,etc... that you are planning to have

[SuperFudge]

Hello All,

I tried wiring as you guys had stated, and all works fine.(if regular recepticles)

Except i also tried installing GFCI`s to the first recepticle in each line, apparently they do not like sharing a common line(white)..they seen to trip as soon as i power it up.

Any ideas ?