There are two relatively inexpensive ways to do this: First is to get half
sized circuit breakers, which would allow you one double pole for the saw
and two single poles for the other stuff. The second is to replace the sub
panel with a four circuit panel and get one double pole full sized breaker
for the saw and two full sized breakers for the other stuff
"I R Baboon" wrote in message
...
i dont know about the rest, but, you CANT run 120 and 240 on the same
circuit. i had the same setup at my house.

"JeffB" wrote in message
...
Existing situation:
The wiring in the garage dates from the 50s or 60s. There is a breaker
box
with
a two 15A breakers that feeds the plugs and lights. There is one duplex
receptacle that is wired for 240V - it's hooked up to both hot wires from
the
two breakers. The rest of the 120V plugs, etc. come off one of the
breakers. The
other breaker is not currently used.

The 240V plug was taped over - I previously didn't even know it was live.
I
would like to get access to a 240V circuit. However, I am concerned about
the
(existing) apparent mixing of 120 and 240 circuits.

Questions:
1) Is is permissible to run 120V and 240V circuits off the same pair of
circuit
breakers - if they are ganged together?
2) If breakers are ganged together, and one leg is overloaded, are they
both
supposed to trip? I performed a little test:
a) with the two breakers separate, an overload (120V) visibly trips one
breaker
- the handle moves to the off position.
b) with the two breakers ganged together, the same overload internally
trips the
same breaker, but the handles don't move, and the other breaker remains
live. Is
this proper behavior? Turning the breakers off, the on again resets the
tripped
breaker.
3) Do breakers 'wear out' or degrade over time? One reason I want a 240V
circuit
is I'm experiencing nuisance tripping when running my table saw under
load. Is
it possible that the breaker is just tripping prematurely?
4) Should I just leave the the whole existing mess alone, get an upgraded
power
drop, main panel and add 240V circuits? This option is MUCH more
expensive...

I was looking for the NEC online, but it looks like I have to buy a copy,
or see
if the library has one...

Thanks!
--
JeffB
remove no.spam. to email