On 2004-10-20, Martin Mickston wrote:

I may have been *wrong* about that dryer being alone on one circuit.
There *is* an outdoor permanent air conditioner unit hooked to the same
fuse in the main circut breaker panel. When I shut down that main fuse
(which looks like four fuses wired together with a copper wire), both
the outdoor A/C compressor and the dryer shut off.

When you say fuse, I assume you mean circuit breaker. Since you say
it looks like four breakers wired together, could it be two double
pole breakers with a common trip? That would be one double pole for
the A/C and one double pole for the dryer circuit. What are the
markings on the ends of each of these four breakers? You could
definitely answer this question by removing the panel cover and taking
a look at the wiring, but that is not advisable if you are not
comfortable with it.

Cheers, Wayne

P.S. If it is two double poles breakers in the space of a single
normal double pull, why would all four be wired to trip together?
Perhaps because the inside pair and the outside pair need to trip
together, but it is not easy to do this separately?