AC and DC disconnect switches allow parts to be isolated for service.
Wiring Wind Turbines or Solar Photovoltaics: Solar panels and wind turbines feed DC power into an inverter, which converts it to AC for home use.
#20 amp breaker generator
Then the generator shuts down and the transfer switch reverses. An automatic transfer switch isolates the generator's electricity to keep it off the grid until power is restored. It's critical that no electricity from the generator back-feeds to the grid-linesmen working to restore power could be electrocuted. Natural gas or propane fuels the generator's engine, which spins an alternator to create a magnetic field that sends current to the home. Installing a Backup Generator: In a power outage, a backup generator provides electricity to designated circuit breakers. When changing live fuses in the old days, electricians worked with one hand while keeping the other in their back pocket-this spared the heart by isolating the current to the nerves of the one hand in the fuse box. In a ground fault, current can flow into a single hand, zapping the heart as it passes through the body on its way to the ground. Ventricular fibrillation, the erratic, lethal spasm that occurs as electric current passes through the heart, happens when both of a person's hands touch hot and neutral conductors, causing the current to complete its circuit through the chest. From there, the system is grounded to the earth via buried ground rods. In a properly grounded system, appliances and metal boxes connect back to the grounding bus of the breaker panel. Grounding prevents a conductor not meant to carry current (such as the metal side of a clothes dryer) from causing injury if it's energized by a frayed hot wire. Used for 40-, 50- and 60-amp two-pole breakers large appliances. 10-gauge wireĪppropriate for a two-pole 20-amp breaker or a single-pole 30-amp breaker. Too thin for anything other than 15-amp breakers under small loads. WIRE GAUGE 12-gauge wireĬommon for low-demand connections to light switches and outlets, attached to either 15- or 20-amp breakers. 15-amp AFI breakerĪrc-fault-circuit-interrupter breakers can prevent fires caused by accidental electrical discharge. The 15-amp and 20-amp are all-purpose breakers, running everything from lights and outlets to garage-door openers.
The 15-amp and 20-amp breakers often handle baseboard heaters, 30-amp serve water heaters and electric dryers, 40- and 50-amp are for electric ranges, and the 70-amp could serve a large air conditioner or a subpanel. Uses the entire 240 volts available to the panel.
Smaller buildings can use 150-amp or 100-amp small homes and subpanels can use as little as 50-amp. A 200-amp breaker is appropriate for a home upwards of 2000 square feet. This is the on/off switch to the entire breaker panel. Each hot wire's copper tip ultimately connects to its control switch at the circuit breaker, and each neutral connects to a common terminal called a bus bar. Current flows from the panel toward the load along the hot wires and returns along the neutral.