I have an interesting question for anyone willing to answer. Below my electric meter outside there is a breaker box housing the 200 amp main shut off breaker as well as two 20A outside appliance breakers.
There are 3 2AWG aluminum wires leading to a barn about a hundred feet from house through 1.25" underground conduit. These three aluminum wires were not previously hooked up to any breaker on either end of run, but terminate in both breaker boxes. I have since installed two 60A breakers in both breaker boxes, one in the panel below the meter as well as one in the new breaker box in the barn as a main shut off.
The problem is that only one of the two hot wires in barn has power, leaving only one side of breaker box having power, leaving me with only 30A and 110V service at the barn. Are breaker boxes below meters typically only 110V? Any ideas of what could be the problem?
Best Answer
Sometimes panel manufacturers will have a null breaker slot on top, bottom, and/or both. Even though a double breaker seemingly fits right in like it's supposed to, only one phase will be hot.
A visual inspection of the busbar is one way to tell, or if you have the busbar layout diagram it will show too.
In case this is the problem, simply move the double pole breaker into the proper slot, then put a blank slot filler to cover the exposed parts. If you don't have a blank handy a breaker with nothing on it is fine too.