"The Henchman" wrote in message
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wrote in message
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Last night I had a double-tapped breaker fail. Turns out the former
owner put most of the overhead lighting, and the living room outlets,
on these two taps.

It's a Cutler-Hammer box so the double-tap was legal.

The basement overheads started flickering as I was working, and soon
went out. When I got to the panel, I could smell something was wrong,
so I started feeling breakers for heat. Found a warm one that sizzled
when I touched it.

Luckily I had purchased a tandem breaker (two separate circuits that
fits in a single breaker slot) back when I took possession of the
house.

Is there a limit on how many tandem breakers can be installed in a
breaker panel? There are two now, and at least one other double-tapped
circuit in the house.

I'm glad you posted this question.

I had a new box installed 2 weeks ago. Siemens made in Canada Box with
Siemens made in USA breakers. I have 7 tandem breakers (thereby 14
circuits) on one side of the box. Siemens refers to this box as a 32/64
thereby implying that this box can handle 32 tandems i.e. 64 circuits.

The electrician's works was inspected and approved by the Electrical
Safety Authority in Ontario.

Now these 7 tandems breakers are located on the side side of the panel as
the following Electric dryer, electric stove, 230 V pool pump and central
air circuit. I'm not concerned about the stove and dryer because we
use gas but I throw that out there to see what people would think about
all tandems and high draw circuits on one side of the box.


The panel buss alternates both legs all the way down and on both sides, so
it doesn't matter unless you installed them every other space, in which case
they'd be on the same leg.