Connect the ground wire to the ground bus.You should strip away the plastic shielding around the wires. Make sure to leave enough wire to connect wires inside the panel to connect to the breaker and the ground bus. Run appropriate gauge wire from the panel to the target service point. Knock out the metal covers on the panel cover to make the breaker slot visible from the front of the panel.Remove the cover and ensure the slots actually exist. Note that just because the front of the panel has two ‘blanks’ doesn’t necessarily mean there are two real slots available in the panel. Make sure you have 2 contiguous spots available.The total amps of the breakers in the panel can exceed the maximum amperage of the panel, but the anticipated concurrent load should not exceed 80% of the nominal amperage of the main breaker. Make sure you have enough service to your panel to support another breaker.These instructions are for general information and you use them at your own risk. Most jurisdictions require a permit to perform electric work, even in your own home. Safety Tip: You must be a certified electrician in many areas to perform electrical work. We’ve pretty much showed you what it takes to install a breaker. This is different than 110 volt installations where the white wire is neutral. We took care to make sure the wire gauge was sufficient and the electrical inspector passed this configuration.įor 220 volt circuits, there is no ‘common’ or neutral wire. We had a slightly short run of #8 wire and so had to use an equivalent wire gauge to make it to the ground bus. The ground wire is connected to the ground bus in the main panel and the ground bus in the sub-panel. The black and white wire each carry 110 volts to the sub-panel (they are wired to the left and right copper bars on that sub-panel). Notice that there are three wires entering the panel for this circuit: a black wire, a white wire, and a ground wire that is nutted to another wire at the bottom of the panel. The picture below shows the 220V Cutler Hammer breaker installed in the panel. That’s a lot of current, and you would not want to touch this part of the panel. Safety Note: The copper bar and metal connected to the copper bar are charged at 110V with a current limit equal to the total of the main breaker installed on the house (in our case, 200 amps). The breaker swings around these teeth and pushes tightly on to the connectors at the back. These teeth align and hold the right side of an installed breaker. Second, notice that on the back of the panel to the right of the copper bars you’ll see two grey teeth sticking off the back of the panel. This results in 220volts of potential across the copper bars, and hence how a double-wide breaker can obtain 220volts. If you look carefully at the picture, you’ll see that the connection on the top slot is coming from the left side of the panel, while the connection on the bottom slot is coming from the copper bar on the right side of the panel. As I discussed in our article on breaker panels, each of these copper bars is powered at 110volts to ground each, and they are out of phase. There’s a few things to notice in this picture:įirst, a 220V breaker takes up two slots. This is the breaker we ultimately installed to run to the sub-panel for the floors. The picture below shows a Cutler Hammer breaker panel with the front cover off and one 220v breaker removed. If you have a question on your own project, we recommend you visit our home improvement forums and ask your question there. Let’s take a look at the 220V breaker installation for this sub-panel. Our system runs on 220 volts and requires a dedicated circuit for each of the 4 segments of the basement floor. We installed an electrical sub-panel for the heated floors in our utility closet that required the installation of a 60 amp 220volt breaker in the main panel and a run of #8 wire from the panel to the sub-panel. For example, we installed radiant heated flooring in our basement. While most homeowners won’t ever need to install a new electrical circuit, there are circumstances where a new 220V circuit may be necessary. 220 volt electrical circuits power stoves, electric furnaces, central air conditioners, and water heaters. 220 volt breakers are commonplace in today’s homes.
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