Handy homeowner here. Electricians ran wire and put in 5 new breakers on my panel as part of an addition to my house. One is hooked up and feeds an outlet, the other 4 are dead. Flipping the switches does nothing. They left something unhooked, but I don't know what it is. I'd like to take over and do the easy trim work (outlets, switches, fixtures) myself. I opened up the panel, but don't see anything obvious. Thoughts on how to liven up these breakers?
Electrical – Electricians left breakers unhooked
circuit breakerelectrical-panel
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It sounds like you may be mistaken as to how this is wired, or that perhaps I'm just not understanding your explanation. As others have mentioned, it's not possible to get 240 volts from a single pole in a 120/240V split phase system. Each tandem breaker provides 2 120 V circuits, this is true. However, if you measure between the terminals on a single tandem breaker, you'll get 0 volts. This is because the terminals are both powered from the same leg, and so are at the same voltage potential. If you measure from a terminal on the top tandem breaker to a terminal on the bottom one, then you'll measure 240 volts. This is because each breaker is connected to a different leg, which are each one half of a 240 volt circuit.
With all that said. For this setup to work, one appliance would have to be connected to both breaker. Something like this...
Notice that each appliance circuit has one wire connected to each of the tandem breakers. In this situation, you'd need a device like Speedy Petey shows.
Which ties the breaker handles together, to provide common trip characteristics.
Notice how the inner handles are tied together, and that the outer handles are also tied to each other. This way if either trip (or are turned off by the user), the entire circuit is shut off.
If this is wired the way you've explained, where the dryer is connected to the top tandem and the heater is connected to the bottom. Then there's some magic going on in those breakers.
As it turned out, according to the OP from his comment:
i found it. the sheathing on the main supply line was slightly severed.
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Best Answer
Stop turning on stuff, when you do not know why. They left one outlet to work with. Pulled the wires are coming back to finish. Now you have stuff on were someone can get hurt, drywallers painters all think wires are dead. And i hope the electrician knows you did this. Or you can add him to the list. Why would anyone do that i do not know.