"RBM" wrote in message
...
On 12/30/2011 8:29 PM, Pete C. wrote:

RBM wrote:

On 12/30/2011 6:05 PM, Mark wrote:
On Dec 30, 5:57 pm, wrote:
On 12/30/2011 5:35 PM, Stormin Mormon wrote: There's only a few
circuits in the box, so I don't think it's critical to
label the wires. We can go through with some time and a couple
walkie
talkies if he wants tem labelled. There's a big breaker outdoors,
that feeds
this panel. It's the main panel box in the trailer. I'm not sure if
this is
considered "sub panel".

Thank you for the ideas and wisdom.

I wasn't suggesting a need to label where the circuits go, just to
identify those that are 120 volt, from those that are 240 volt

and what size (how many amps) breaker they each go to

a picture or two is a good idea

Mark

I would not assume that they are currently connected to the proper size
breakers. I would size the breaker to the conductor size as I was
reinstalling the loads

That, with the caveat that is it's a 12ga wire coming off a 15A breaker,
don't assume you can safely replace it with a 20A breaker, there could
be 14ga wiring downstream.

I assume if you replace a 20A with a 15A breaker you're likely to start
tripping the breaker. I've found, unfortunately, people often put in a
larger breaker rather than run a new circuit. In my 70 year old house, I
found a lot of 20A breakers in the panel but the two oldest ones were 15A
and that made my suspect the newer breakers were installed improperly
because 15A breakers kept tripping. I've since put 15A breakers (dual
skinnies) on all the old cloth covered circuits and run 12ga wire on 20A
breakers to all the potentially large loads (3 new kitchen circuits, two
outside circuits, two new bedroom circuits and one for my RAS.

There shouldn't be. Unless you're prepared to uncover the entire wiring
system, there could always be a chance that a smaller conductor was
spliced to a larger one. If, when disconnecting the wires from the
breakers, you find conductors mismatched to the breaker size, it would
make sense to investigate the circuit

This brings up an interesting question. Is there a way to determine the
real ampacity of a branch circuit other than inspecting every outlet, switch
and junction box on the circuit? Can someone throw the main breaker and
take a meter reading that might indicate that a circuit that appears to
warrant a 20A breaker can only safely handle 15A? Is voltage drop a clue to
there being an issue with a circuit's current carrying capacity?

--
Bobby G.