Installing A Tandem Circuit Breaker

The problem is that when the openings are all used up and you still need to add another circuit what do you do.

Installing a tandem circuit breaker.

You ll also hear them called duplex slimline twin half height half. That allows you to add new breakers when your breaker box doesn t have any new slots open for it. Circuit breakers come in several styles including the standard single pole breakers that serve 120 volt household circuits and double pole breakers that take up two slots in a breaker box and serve 240 volt appliances a special kind of circuit breaker is the tandem breaker which is designed to allow two 120 volt circuits to be fit into a single slot in the circuit breaker box. Tandem breakers often called split twin or double breakers provide two separate circuits in the space of a regular sized breaker slot every circuit breaker panel a k a.

If these devices were dangerous ge tandem breakers square d tandem breakers and options from other well respected brands wouldn t exist. Assuming your circuit panel is cleared to accept a tandem breaker you can install it the same way you install a regular breaker. However installing circuit breakers into most residential electrical panels doesn t have to be dangerous or overly complicated. Tutorial for identifying tandemized tandem compatible slots in qo load centers and installing qot tandem qo circuit breakers.

In fact most people choose not to do it themselves out of fear of being shocked. Fortunately despite that moniker tandem circuit breakers are completely safe to use provided your panelboard was meant to house them and that you install them in the correct locations. Not all qo load centers wi. Next make sure each of the tandem breakers are off.

Loosen the two terminal screws before you install the breaker. A tandem breaker fits two individual breakers into the size of one. A tandem circuit breaker is a double circuit breaker that takes up the space of a single circuit breaker on a panelboard. The new tandem breaker has a knife like mounting cam that fits in the open pan rail slot on the mounting rail bead.