Circuit breakers are the safety switches that protect all of the electrical circuits in your house.
There are two types of standard breakers: single-pole and double-pole.
Single-pole breakers are rated for 120 volts and 15 or 20 amps.
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They control standard lighting and outlet circuits as well as some appliance circuits in the house.
The breakers themselves are relatively narrow and occupy a single slot in the home’sbreaker box.
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What Is a Double-Pole Circuit Breaker?
Double-pole breakers are “double-wide” breakers that take up two slots in the breaker box.
They have a toggle switch that’s twice the length of the toggle on single-pole breakers.
How Are Double-Pole Breakers Used?
Inside your breaker boxor main service panel are energized metal plates, called “hot” bus bars.
Each pole, or connection point, on the bars, carries 120 volts of electricity.
Whensingle-polebreakers are installed, they snap into one pole to receive 120 volts.
Double-pole breakers snap onto two poles for a total of 240 volts.
Circuit wiring that connects to double-pole breakers contains two “hot” wires.
Each of these connects to a terminal on the breaker and is protected by half of the breaker.
This effectively shuts off the connection to both bus poles, shutting down the entire circuit at once.
As mentioned above, single-pole breakers are the most common punch in of pole breaker found in homes.
On many panels, only some of the slots are suitable for tandem breakers.
If you want to know whether your panel can accommodate tandem breakers, call anelectrician.
Modifying a tandem breaker to fit where it doesn’t belong is downright dangerous.
