two breakers to one receptacle


  #1  
Old 08-19-02, 07:27 AM
george703
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two breakers to one receptacle

I just figured out that I have an outlet that needs to have two breakers on for it to operate, this can't be right, particularly since one breaker is 20 amp and one is 15! Does anyone have any thoughts on what is going on?

BTW - i learned this because of another problem - My lights flicker off slightly once about every 15-20 miutes during the course of a day. I tired tighening the neutrals and then the positivies, but still have the problem. At the moment I'm trying turning on one breaker at a time until the problem reoccurs to see if there is a problem with one circuit. Does this make sense or any other ideas on this front? Thanks for any help!
 
  #2  
Old 08-19-02, 08:48 AM
Sparksone42
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What is this receptacle for? Are you saying that in order to use either the top or the bottom of the receptacle that you have to have both breakers turned on?
Give us a little more information so that we can give you ideas.
 
  #3  
Old 08-19-02, 10:59 AM
Edwardo
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I don't know about your 2 circuit breaker driven receptacle, but regarding your light flickering...

Is it just a few lights or a lot? ( i.e. is it probably confined to one circuit or could be be everything on a phase or every light in the house? ).

We moved into a new ( existing, but new to us ) house about 1 year ago. Sometime after moving in, we noticed that one light fixture seemed to flicker occasionally. Sometimes it would go out and stay out for minutes, hours, or days. Eventually, we figured out that when it was out, another light was out as was the exhaust fan in the kitchen. This problem was very difficult to reproduce on demand. We had an electrician out to diagnose and fix the problem and he found a high resistance splice in the main power cable ( for this circuit ) in the attic. Everything on this circuit before the exhaust fan worked fine, but the exhaust fan and everything downstream had the flickering problem. I don't know why the splice was even there because there was nothing connected at that point. Probably cut a wire too short or something. The wires were not put together very well and then they were just taped, not wire-nutted.

Just something to look for. See if you can find a loose connection in the circuit prior to the flickering light.

Good luck!
 
  #4  
Old 08-19-02, 07:13 PM
J
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Sounds like a multiwire circuit. It's unusual but not illegal for the two breakers to be different sizes. Before commenting further, I'll wait for the additional information that Sparksone42 requested.
 
  #5  
Old 08-20-02, 05:01 AM
george703
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My mistake! I now only need one breaker. I guess a breaker was loose or something, but I can't get it to repeat the need for both breakers to be on for the reptacle to work. It was both outlets in an ordinary receptacle. Anyway, thanks for the responses. george
 
 

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