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What Can I Do If My Breaker Box is Almost Full?
When adding new ITE circuit breakers or other brands, you may come to the limit of what your breaker box can physically hold. Some people are tempted at this stage to add mini circuit breakers, but before doing this you should read the building code for your home, apartment or office to see what is allowed. You may not be able to legally install mini circuit breakers except as a temporary measure, and in these cases your building may not pass an inspection until the mini circuit breakers are removed.
In situations like these it is better to install a sub panel next to the main breaker box and run the circuit from the sub panel instead. If you don't know how to do this, it's a job better left for a qualified electrician, but if you are a do-it-yourselfer you can purchase the sub panel and any necessary ITE breakers and get the job done after a bit of research into what your building code may require to do the installation legally. Once you have the sub panel installed, it's a very good idea to have an electrician do an inspection of your electrical system to make sure everything is up to code.
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Can I Add More Circuit Breakers To My Breaker Panel?
Many do-it-yourselfers add what are called subsidiary panels to places in the home which may need additional outlets or their own circuit breaker support. If you add a new room to a home or build a garage, you may need to add a subsidiary panel in order to provide electricity to the new area. You can add ITE circuit breakers (or other brands) for these subsidiary panels if there is room in the breaker box.
Breaker boxes usually don't use every available slot, and the additional slots are protected by pre-cut strips of metal made to be broken out to make room for new ITE breakers. Make sure to turn off the power to the breaker box before doing any work; once the power is out you can remove the protective metal strips and install new ITE breakers for the sub panel. It's important to know what the residential building code is for the allowed number of circuit breakers in one panel before you consider such modifications to your home.
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How Many Circuit Breakers Can I Add To My Breaker Box?
Are you considering putting in additional ITE circuit breakers? There are two things you need to know before installing additional ITE breakers, mini circuit breakers or other types. The first is how much physical space is left in your breaker box to accommodate the new ITE breakers. As you look down the breaker box, you may notice there are some metal "punch-out panels" which can be removed to create additional space for your new ITE circuit breakers. If there are no more of these spaces left, you have a full circuit breaker panel and more breakers cannot be installed. Instead, you will need to put in a sub panel to accommodate the additional circuit breakers.
The second thing you need to do before adding circuit breakers is to check your electrical panel to see how many ITE breakers or other brands it is rated to handle. Do not exceed the maximum capacity of your breaker box even if you have room to install more circuit breakers.
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Types of Overloads
Your ITE circuit breakers will trip when they experience an overload. Depending on their construction, ITE breakers may trip due to excessive heat or because a magnetic field was generated in response to the increased load. The end result is the same--the power suddenly turns off in part of your home--but overloads are not identical. They may come as a sudden large surge such as in the aftermath of a lightning strike, or they may build slowly over time. A small overload won't trip your ITE breakers right away, but the overload does exist and will create a problem over time.
This is one reason why it's so important to track down the source of an overload if it is connected to a faulty appliance. Using too many appliances on the same circuit is a problem, but an equally serious issue is an appliance with faulty wiring. Over time, that wiring may weaken and create a fire hazard. Repeated trips of your ITE breakers should be investigated carefully and the causes addressed; don't continue to use a faulty device until you can get it repaired and working properly.
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What is a Dual Pole Circuit Breaker for?
Dual pole ITE circuit breakers do what their single pole counterparts can't; they allow appliances like washing machines and refrigerators to operate with their higher energy demands without causing an overload. Dual pole ITE circuit breakers are able to do this thanks to their construction. Single pole ITE breakers are used with 220-volt circuits. They have two "hot" or live wires, as opposed to the 120-volt circuit's single wire.
If either one of the 220-volt wires has a short, the dual pole ITE circuit breaker is built to trip and kill the power completely. If an air conditioner were wired to a pair of single pole ITE circuit breakers it could trip one circuit while leaving the other active. This would create a serious hazard. The use of dual pole ITE circuit breakers avoids that hazard completely.
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Types of Circuit Breakers
There are many types of circuit breakers. Regardless of their configuration, they are all designed to keep the circuit open while conditions are optimal and to break the circuit if conditions warrant it because of overloads, surges and other electrical problems. Your ITE breaker for in-home use may come with one of three designs used to break the circuit when an overload is detected.
One type is the magnetic breaker. Magnetic circuit breakers contain an electromagnet which is designed to increase its magnetism as the electrical load increases. If there is too much of an increase, the magnet automatically switches the circuit breaker off. Another type of ITE circuit breaker uses heat to detect an overload or surge. When the heat becomes too much, the breaker switches off. The third type of circuit breaker uses a combination of heat and magnetism to protect the electrical system.
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What is a "Dual Pole" Circuit Breaker?
An ITE circuit breaker with a single pole is used for a 120-volt circuit. A clock radio, console video game or answering machine can run on a 120-volt circuit with no problems as there are no heavy-duty motors, compressors or other high-draw devices which require more from your electrical system. An air conditioner, refrigerator or washing machine demands more. These devices must be run on a 220-volt circuit and for these appliances a dual-pole ITE circuit breaker (or other brand) is required.
The dual-pole circuit breaker allows these high demand appliances to operate safely. In the case of kitchens and laundry rooms, a dedicated circuit is required for items like the dish washing machine or clothes dryer. These requirements are spelled out in building codes for houses and apartment buildings; they are not optional. If you aren't sure what is required for your home, contact an electrician and get some expert advice before you make modifications to your home's electrical system.
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