Please explain how home breaker panels work.

[JazzBlueRT]

I have a 200 amp service to the house. I had an electrician replace a 25 amp breaker with a 30 amp for my water heater. As I was looking at the panel, there appears to be like 400 amps of breakers in there.

If I connected something to each outlet and ran all appliances would the panel melt, overload, explode, start a fire etc...?

 

[Musicinabottle]

Naw, just the main would trip. If you were using more than 200 amps that is.....

Using 200 plus amps at the same moment would be a feat. Could be done on a huge house with electric everything, including heat, hot water heater, dryer etc.

 

[ewtoutdoors]

The panel will only supply the amount of amps the Main Breakers are. So if you try and draw the 400 amps the Main Breakers will pop at 200 amps. Hope this helps and take care.

 

[Marctrees]

No matter what you have "below" controlling Branch Circuits, the main is the total that will be able to flow.

It is totally normal for the breakers below to add up to way more than the main.


Well , usually anyway.

If it explodes, message from your Motel, let us know, and we will edit our answers to fit.



Marc

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I have a 200 amp service to the house. I had an electrician replace a 25 amp breaker with a 30 amp for my water heater. As I was looking at the panel, there appears to be like 400 amps of breakers in there.

If I connected something to each outlet and ran all appliances would the panel melt, overload, explode, start a fire etc...?

You can have branch breakers that add up to more than the rating of the main breaker because not everything draws max breaker rating and not everything is used at the same time.

BTW- why did the electrician replace a 25a with a 30a breaker?

 

[theoldwizard1]

As I was looking at the panel, there appears to be like 400 amps of breakers in there.

If I connected something to each outlet and ran all appliances would the panel melt, overload, explode, start a fire etc...?

It would be very difficult to "load" every individual circuit in breaker panel to near it maximum unless you had a couple of electric heaters or a couple of window air conditioners on each circuit. Highly unlikely that will ever happen. (I have done it, but that was because the house was wired in the 1950s and electrical codes were very lax back then. Nothing "bad" happened. The breaker tripped as it was designed to do. A house built to today's standard would have about twice as many breakers.)

The one room in you house that MIGHT have several high current items running at the same time, would be your kitchen. Coffee pot, toaster, electric frying pan, etc. Electrical code for many years now have required that kitchens have 2 separate circuit, one on the left side of the sik and one on the right. These 2 circuits are not to be used for any purpose other than counter top appliances. So your stove, microwave, refrigerator, dish washer, garbage disposer and lights are on different circuits.

I have a 200 amp service to the house. I had an electrician replace a 25 amp breaker with a 30 amp for my water heater.

This could be potentially dangerous ! The wire between the breaker and the hot water heater was (likely) sized to handle 25 amps continuously. At over 25 amps continuously, the wire could over heat, melting the insulation and then REALLY BAD THING could happen ! Which is why ...

BTW- why did the electrician replace a 25a with a 30a breaker?

 

[bushmechanic]

If it explodes, message from your Motel, let us know, and we will edit our answers to fit.



Marc

That's exactly what would happen, too.

 

[larry_g]

One of the basics is " The breaker is there to protect the WIRE " Any given wire size is limited to the maximum amperage it can carry before overheating. The breaker will trip if the load, amp draw, on that wire exceeds the limits of the breaker thus protecting the wire.

What the guys above are concerned with on the replacement breaker is: Is the old wire capable of carrying a 30 amp load before overheating? If it is not 10ga or larger then you may have problems.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Gmonkee]

On my house its 30 amp fuses on the main and five 15 amp breakers to five circuits. Typical modern installation in Mexico.

All bulbs are LED or CFL, only the refri, washer and one tv are high draw items. Each is on a different circuit. Not by accident, keeps everything running cooler.

If it works as promised those fuses will never fry in my lifetime as it is very difficult to get the usage up that high even with everything turned on. The new fancy LED bulbs and correct size wiring are going to be a huge help in keeping the load down.

 

[teamextreme]

Since #12 is generally limited to 20A, the 25A breaker was likely feeding #10, which is fine for a 30A breaker as well. But it would be a good thing to double check the wire size to be sure. Original water heater probably had a nameplate listing max breaker as 25A. Was a new water heater installed at some time? If so, new one may be listed as 30A. Either that, or electrician didn't have a 25A breaker (they're a little hard to come by).

 

[wyliesdiesels]

This could be potentially dangerous ! The wire between the breaker and the hot water heater was (likely) sized to handle 25 amps continuously. At over 25 amps continuously, the wire could over heat, melting the insulation and then REALLY BAD THING could happen ! Which is why ...

I wasnt concerned with the wire size as much as I was curious why the switch.

Its probably #10 already so it would obviously be fine