Electrical - Breaker

I'm replacing my electric range with gas.  The electric has (I think) a four-wire #6 or #8 cable approx 60ft run with a 40a dual post breaker.  I say "I think" because the wire is behind everything else in the panel.  I see red/white/black wires, but no ground and I can't read the jacket.  Once I cut the main, i'll have a closer look. 



The gas range requires only a 15amp breaker. 

Can I simply replace the breaker with 15A and the 4 prong outlet with a Nema 5-15p?  I'd cap off both ends of the red wire.  Is there some sort of code that says I need to maintain the 40A circuit for a future stove?

Or is there some sort of transformer I can plug into the stove end and avoid all that hassel.  ?
      

Hi all, this is my first post, so...my kitchen was just renovated and the electrical outlets are on the walls and I wanted them in plugmold under the cabinet. Why didn't it happen?  Long story, but I'm doing it myself now.  The electrical receptacles are on 2 separate circuits with a gfci receptacle on each and neither circuit has a receptacle outside the kitchen where I can put the gfci's, so I'm putting gfci breakers in the panel instead. I've run into a different problem on each circuit that'd like some advice on.



Circuit 1: this is a 20 amp circuit.  I have to plug this circuit's neutral wire into the gfci breaker, but I couldn't see which neutral wire matched the hot wire (buried in mess of wires) and I don't have a continuity tester so I just pulled one neutral at a time (tedious) until the circuit failed, but it never failed. So I did this again for every neutral...same result. This circuit shares a few boxes with other circuits so I'm wondering if the neutrals on different circuits are tied together somewhere, and if so I'm pretty sure, but not completely, that that's not going to work with the gfci breaker.  So I didn't install that gfci breaker since I'm not confident it would actually gfci (yep i verbified gfci).  What do you think?



Circuit 2:  this is a 20 amp circuit.  This circuit currently has the refrigerator, gas stove and range hood, and then a gfci in front of 3 electrical receptacles, which already sounds bad since I thought the kitchen receptacles required 2 dedicated circuits. I replaced that breaker with no problem, but it tripped after a few minutes and continued to trip every few minutes. I haven't changed anything else on that circuit yet and it's never tripped before, but now it is, so I put the old breaker back for now. The current gfci receptacle is only protecting the 3 outlets since the appliances are ahead of it. I know you wouldn't normally want the appliances gfci protected, so do you think the refrigerator motor may be a problem?  Do I need the appliances on a separate circuit?  What would you suggest I do?



Thanks, and if you're wondering "why all the effort?", it's partly because I'm meddlesome, partly because I'm bored, and partly because the backsplash tile is to be on showcase, not the electrical receptacles.
      

My kitchen circuit breaker tripped again (California).  Resetting the suspect circuit breaker used to fix this...   (it happens every few months) Now things are dark again in the kitchen and most of the back of the house. Resetting the usual suspect circuit breaker does not help. I reset all of them for good measure. (still dark).



The strange is when checking voltages with meter voltmeter, from the bottom-up, every other breaker terminal does not read 120V, they are OV.   All of the breakers are set properly, so why are half of them dead at their output terminal (where the wire connects)  I'm thinking possibly a buss bar problem? If so, how to troubleshoot that?





                                                                            Thx!!



                                                                       Mark
      

In my older home i just founf out that all the upstairs ( 2 bedrooms) outlets are installed on the same 20 amp circuit breaker for my kitchen. which might be a reason that when too many things are running this breaker trips. My question is I want to add a 15 amp breaker and isolate all the upstairs on this breaker so the kitchen stays seperate. i Found the romex that is installed to a downstairs outlet that is connected to all the other outlets upstairs but since it is hidden in the walls and i narrowed it down to 3 possiblities upstairs, but i am not sure. How can i test to see which one of the romex wires it could be so i can attach my new romex from the new breaker and just abandon the old wire all together.

PS. when i disconnnect the romex from the outlet downstairs in the kitchen all the outlets upstairs stop working, that is how i know that is the one that brings the electriity upstairs.
      

Hello



I recently upgraded my old fuse panel with a circuit panel.  One of the circuits contains mostly lights and also my furnace.  The wire on the lights are 14/2 and the breaker is a 20 amp breaker.  Can I replace the 20 amp breaker with a 15 amp Breaker or do I need to change all the wire.



Help



Thanks
      

I have new 12/2 wire running to my attic (home built 1920) on a 20amp breaker.  My service is 100A and the box is older but not ancient.  The only thing on the line is a couple of outlets and 2 lights.  Would it be code to switch this breaker out for a tandem 15amp breaker?  This would open some space for me as my box is full.  Thanks.
      

We want to run 110V service to a portable building 95' from the breaker box at the house. It will run a 110V 8000 BTU AC (dedicated breaker), two single bulb light fixtures and 2 additional wall outlets. Our breaker box at the house is full, but I am being told I can remove a single breaker in the box and replace it with one that contains two breakers. What is the name of this type of breaker and where can I get one? What size breaker should be used for this amount of power requirement? What size breakers should I have in the load center on the portable building?
      

I am redoing my basement, and i am making the electrical runs for the recessed lights in the ceiling. I am using 14 gauge wire, and i have 16 recessed lights with 65 watt bulbs in them, however they are rated at 75 watts max. assuming someone after us may put in the max bulb, the total watts would be 1200, equaling 10 amps. When all of the new wiring is done, i am going to have an electrician connect the circuits to the circuit breaker (using 15 amp breakers) however since i am not comfortable doing this myself, and i would like to use the lights now, can i connect them to the existing 12 gauge wire (this will not overload the breaker... i already checked what else was plugged in to the electrical outlets).



to recap:

The power draw will only be 10 amps at MAX. capacity

existing wiring is 12 gauge/ 20 amp breaker

electrician WILL connect 14 gauge wire to breaker using 15 amp breaker



*THIS WILL BE TEMPORARY*
      

I am replacing a feed through breaker panel the bus bar and breaker was inverted but the main breaker is up and down with on being down and I also noticed that the plastic in the back that holds the bus bar is cracked.



I bought a newer model from the same manufacture that has a much better design and a better main breaker.  But unlike the one I already have when you invert it the breaker slots don't line up and cover does not fit properly.



I was thinking about just cutting out the center where the breaker slots are.  I measured and if I cut it just right all I have to do is turn it over and it will line up just have to bolt or weld it in place.  Would this be legal



I also thought about putting the panel the way it came and feeding the bus bar hot and keeping the panel under the 6 throw rule.  Or would that not work because I am using feed through.  There will be 4 double pole breakers and the one main that feeds a sub panel.





I really hate the cheap design of this panel.







I plan to replace it with this.




      

I'm new to this site.  But would appreciate some troubleshooting.  I just renovated my kitchen, gutted and all, finished in the Fall.  I did not replace wiring to the dryer, nor tamper with it, to my knowledge.  We did have an electrician add a small fuse panel.  We did not add more appliances then before, added some lights, but mostly used the room to separate things out.  Had a mentor do the wiring, many years of experience, very tidy and careful work, though not electrician by trade.  We have a standard 200 amp box as far as i know.  The house is 100 years old, but the wiring isn't.



In October my mother in law heard a very loud bang.  The electric dryer had been running.  She smelled smoke.  At the dryer receptacle was molten plastic sprayed onto the wall, caused by overheating at that point, due to I don't know what.  I thought maybe I had knocked something loose in the receptacle when i was drywalling around it.  I can't remember now if the breaker had tripped.  The receptacle and plug were toast. 



I replaced the receptacle, I replaced the dryer cord, not the breaker.   The dryer worked fine until february, when it stopped heating.  I found a bad thermal fuse and replaced it, the very common two pronged white one. 



The dryer worked fine until early April when it stopped heating again.  I checked all the fuses/thermostats on the back and the heating element, as I had done the first time.  Nothing was bad.  I checked the voltage coming out of the wall, as I had done the first time, only this time I did it correctly and got a reading that told me to check the breaker in the panel, which had not thrown.  When I checked the voltage between the Nuetral Bus and the two terminals on the Dryer's 30 amp breaker I only got a good reading on one of them, telling me that the breaker was bad.  While at the box, i noticed that to the main breaker, from where the conduit comes into the box from outside, the nuetral wires are bare all the way up, no insulation, and at the terminal of the main breaker they appear to have all melted together, even a couple small pieces have melted off of the "bundle." 



Switched the range 50 amp breaker with the dryer, dryer worked fine, nothing was back fed either.  Bought a new 30 amp breaker for the dryer and installed it on Saturday.  Also on Saturday we were given a dryer, about 4 years old, same as ours, so i hooked it up and saved ours for a spare, which I deemed still good since it seemed the breaker was the issue.  New Dryer worked fine from saturday until today.  Now it won't turn on, though it didn't cut out mid load yesterday either.  The breaker did not trip.  I repeat, no tripped breaker.  I just checked the voltage at the wall and it seems to have that same problem where one side of the receptacle gets a reading of 120, and the other a reading of about 5.  The problem must be bigger than the breaker.  I am not an electrician, I am a welder.  I have gone as far as I could on my own.  Thank you.