Ground Wire Size?

I have installed several GFCI breakers and every one had the neutral wire connected to the light colored and white paint marked terminal.

However a friend gave me a Siemens QPF 120 breaker and the load Power is not marked. On the side of the breaker, the pigtail is marked Panel Neutral and the terminal above this is marked Load Neutral. The other terminal which I assume is for the Hot, has a white paint marking and the screw is only slightly darker then the other. The white paint has me confused.

How do I wire this breaker?
      

What size wire is needed to run 100' from the main breaker panel at the house to a portable building? The load center at the protable building will run an 8000 BTU 110V window AC, two single bulb light fixtures and one 110V wall eletrical outlet.



Thanks for your help.
      

hello

I am dealing with what seems like a strange issue with a single pole switch, and I am royally baffled even after reaching out to someone a little more knowledgeable than me.



Yesterday: Replaced with a single pole switch with an identical one that I painted (for decor reasons). Two wires were going into the old, and the same 2 wires are attached to the new one. However, the light it controls fails to come on despite light bulb being good, and outlet located 4 feet below the switch fails to operate. With voltmeter in hand I tested voltages.

At the switch: 3 wires feed into it, all whites capped together, and 2 of the 3 blacks (A,B,C) are hot with 110. A is hot and was/is connected to one of the terminals of the single pole switch. B and C (hot) are capped together with a jumper that goes to the other terminal of the single pole switch. So I am royally baffled as to why a switch would be wired with 2 hot wires going into it. I swear it has been like that since we bought the house a year ago, and the light worked fine. I simply replaced the switch with the same wiring, and now it doesnt work. I even touched both hots (A and C) independently to wire B which (using common sense) should be the load wire to the lamp, but the lamp did not come one.



Other outlets in that circuit do not work either. They get 110 to line and ground, but not across the outlet.



I hope I was clear in explaining, and I hope someone can possibly shed some light so I can resolve this.



Thank you
      

Hello All,



I'm about to "re-locate" some existing breakers and wires into a subpanel and have a few questions.



1) My existing hot water heater is wired with 2 conductor w/ground wiring (30 amp, #10 wire). Is this still Code compliant or do you have to have 3 conductor now as with dryers?



My existing dryer also has 2 conductor w/ground wiring (installed in 1999).



If I relocated it or the hot water wires/breakers to my new subpanel will they require me to upgrade to current code (3 conductor, if applicable)? The subpanel will attach to the Main Load Center which is where those breakers/wires are currently attached.



Main question is will I be grandfathered with existing wiring in only relocating the breakers/wires to subpanel?  I'm not relocating the appliances or recepticles themselves.



2) I have 3 conductor w/ground wires for my cook top. It only requires 2 conducter w/ground however. They wired the ground/neutrals together but has flexible metal conduit running to the cook top itself. Should I remove the ground and bond it to the metal conduit?



Thanks, Ralph
      

I have a 5 hp, guess it's a 80 gallon, 220 volt Ingersoll Rand compressor and had problems with the motor not wanting to start. I found a replacement box that included the Siemens starter and a new reset. The only thing this new box doesn't have is the two 5 amp fuses and didn't figure I needed to use them so I didn't add them to the new box.(?) After wiring the unit I have found the only way the compressor will kick on is if I hold down the Siemens starter re-set.



I know I have the motor wired properly and the wires from the pressure switch expect the white one. It originally went to one of the two fuses and than to where I currently is.(?)



The black motor wire was connected to the bottom of the reset (lower left), which is out of view in the pic

The white motor wire was connected to the bottom right of the Siemens starter

The motor ground was connected to the ground terminal on the box.



The pressure switch black wire was connected to the top right of the starter.

The pressure switch with wire was connected to the top left of the starter.

The ground was connected to the ground terminal on the box.



The incoming black hot wire was connected to the top left of of the starter.

The incoming white hot wire was connected to the top right of the starter.

The ground was connected to the ground terminal on the box.



Any idea what's wrong and have I included enough information?



Thanks, Shawn
      

We had a pipe disconnect above the downstairs bathroom and the ceiling just about came down, so I decided since it was a hedious looking space, that it was a sign from the gods: Reno time!



Im now at the wiring stage. Originally there was a junction box with a light fixture out one side and a single pole switch(no ground screw...grnd wire attached to the box)on  the other. Typical set up: white from switch marked "hot" or "black" at both ends, and spliced with the incoming power's black wire. Then remaining blacks are spliced together as are the remaining whites... grounded accordingly.



What Im trying to do now is add a GFCI receptical to the mix. But Im having some trouble figuring it all out. NOTE: light fixture is not installed yet, just the wire for it with the ends capped off with a wire nut on each of the wires (Wht/Black/Grnd)



First, whats in the walls: Circuits on a 15 AMP fuse with older (but not the oldest) 12/2 wire with a blue weaved fiber outside cover. Still looks to be in great shape. I've continued using newer, yellow (Lomex or Romex?) 12/2 from homedepot as I've read that you should not mix 14 and 12 together.

All that is on the cicuit is 3 pot lights with 65w bulbs, single bulb on the stairway and what ever goes in the bathroom, so from my math, there should be plenty of room left on the circuit.



What I've tried so far:

A: I spliced the "hot"/"black" white wire from the switch to the incoming power's black, like before. Then I spliced all remaining blacks together with a wire nut, then the same with all remaining whites and then all grounds (did not attach any grnd wire to the Junction box).



Result, Nothing. After switching on the power, I tested the GFCI with a voltage tester as well as the switch and got no read.



B: Undid everything, re-spliced all like to like: all blck together, all white together..etc.



Result: Fuse trips.



Im no electrician, which I imagine is blatantly obvious from the above post, but I am following a Homedepot wiring manual, its just that what Im trying to do is not really addressed in the book... at least not directly. So I've been trying to figure it out by reading every single page, but Im still at a loss.



I've attached a very basic diagram of what is there right now. Any advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

John
      

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'm in the process of planning to wire up two spot lights on the face of my deck as well as running an outlet (which will also be under the deck) for a LV transformer to plug in to. I will need a few junction boxes to achieve this, as well as electrical boxes for the two spot lights. I'm planning on running 12AWG THWN through some sort of conduit run along the joists to the various lighting locations and junction boxes. This will be between 3' to 8' above the surface of the ground and under roof for the most part (we built a roof over the majority of the deck as well).



So, do you recommend PVC and plastic boxes or EMC and the appropriate boxes?
      

I have a grounding question.  I am installing 400a service to my new home.  We ran 350MCM wire underground thru 3" conduit from the 2ndary terminal (moped) to the house into a 320A Cooper B-Line meter.  From the meter we ran 2 sets of 4/0-4/0-2/0 thru the wall to 2-200a breaker panels ("standard practice", according to my electrical supplier).  The ground wire (#4Cu bare) from the grounding rods comes up from the ground and we're curious if there has to be a special splice connecting the ground wire to each breaker panel or can we run thru one breaker panel to then next, say by connecting the ground wire to a ground bus on one panel and running that thru to the next with #4Cu bare or #6Cu in conductor.  Different electricians are suggesting different methods and the electrical inspector is unsure, but seems to be leaning towards the "special splice". Any feedback would be appreciated.