How To Wire A Circuit Breaker Panel

Clear a knockout panel install cable clamps in the hole and feed the wires through the clamp.

How to wire a circuit breaker panel. This diagram illustrates some of the most common circuits found in a typical 200 amp circuit breaker service panel box. Opening the main circuit breaker panel box and adding a circuit is actually pretty easy. The breakers are installed in a panel so that contact is made with one of two hot bus bars running down the middle of the box. Grounding in the maze of wires that inhabits your breaker box there s one more to be.

You only have to connect three wires to add a circuit and each circuit wire is color coded. Snap the breaker into place by clipping it to the hot bus bar. With all circuit wires connected the circuit breaker can be snapped into place into its panel slot. Circuit breaker panel box wiring diagram.

The hot wire for a branch circuit is connected to the. It doesn t matter to which breaker you install either of the wires. Inside the main panel you ll need two adjacent slots in which you can install a 30 amp double pole breaker. In the sub panel box the neutral and ground wires will connect the same as they do in the main breaker box but the red and black wires will connect to the hot bar instead of.

Tighten the clamp to secure the wires. Electricity can be dangerous. This video is intended for entertainment purposes only. 8 gauge wire goes with 40 or 60 amp two pole breakers.

Connect any new circuits to the subpanel attaching the hot wire to a circuit breaker and the other wires to their respective buses. Lock the new circuit breaker into an open slot by slipping the side with the attached hot wire under the tab beside the hot bus bar. Inside the covering you ll find a copper wire the ground wire a white covered wire the neutral wire a black wire the hot wire and a red wire another hot wire. On afci or gfci breakers this circuit wire will be attached to the terminal marked load power or black finally for afci or gfci breakers attach the breaker s coiled white pigtail wire to the neutral bus bar in the panel.

Connect the red wire to one of the breakers in the set and the black wire to the other and then snap the breaker into place. But there are some safety precautions and if you ignore them you could kill yourself. Push the other side in toward the bus bar until it snaps into place flush with the other breakers in the panel.