Home Improvement Asked on April 2, 2021
I have a circuit that’s starting to reach its limits and there’s an outlet (on that circuit) mounted to the stud almost directly below the circuit breaker. My goal is to create a dedicated circuit for the outlet below the breaker panel and I thought I had a simple solution to my problem, but it turns out one line goes into the outlet and two lines come out of it. My original assumption was that only a single line came out of the outlet box and I originally planned to simply move that line directly to the breaker, but when I determined there are actually two lines coming out of the box, my plan fell apart.
What are my options? The only one I can think of is to create three individual circuits, but that’s not really what I would like to do because one of the lines runs to an electric blower that probably draws no more than five amps (if even).
Just to recap, I want to move the outlet below the breaker to a dedicated circuit and I would like the two lines running out of the outlet box to stay on the original circuit. Is there any good way to accomplish this?
A breaker box is a perfectly legitimate junction box.
Assuming (since you mentioned moving the cable to the breaker) that you have adequate slack in the cables to move them to the breaker box:
So (if the breaker is not listed for two wires - varies with many details, I know the SquareD QO ones I have are, for copper wires of limited gauge range) just put a pigtail on the breaker and wirenut it to the two hot wires from the two cables you want to relocate, and either do the same from the neutral bar (Only ONE wire per hole on the Neutral bar, though) and wirenut to the neutrals on the cables you are relocating, or use two holes on the neutral bar if you have room to do each of the neutrals you are relocating.
Likewise, connect the grounds to the ground bar (which might or might not be the same as the neutral bar, depending if it's a main panel or a sub-panel) and which might be listed for more than one ground wire per hole (check the box label for that information, and the required torque value for the ground and neutral bar screws. Breaker torque value my also be noted, or you may have to look on the breaker itself for that number.)
Use a torque screwdriver (or low-value inch-pound torque wrench) to make the connections properly.
Correct answer by Ecnerwal on April 2, 2021
Remove the dedicated outlet from the circuit, but leave everything else in that box connected. Then run another line from the newly dedicated circuit breaker to the dedicated outlet.
Answered by A. I. Breveleri on April 2, 2021
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