Two 15 amp breakers Vs 15 amp double pole

A 240 volt circuit, such as your well pump, must use tied breakers (those breakers with the handles connected together) and must not use breakers without this feature. This is an important safety feature, required by NEC.

As well, no, a 15 amp breaker is a 15 amp breaker.

Your post implies that your electrical experience is limited. There are a lot of good self-help books that will teach you about home electrical wiring. I'd recommend as a minimum you get one of these books and read it. Better yet: get several (think: library!) and read all. That may prevent serious grief later on.

A 240 volt circuit, such as your well pump, must use tied breakers (those breakers with the handles connected together) and must not use breakers without this feature. This is an important safety feature, required by NEC.

As well, no, a 15 amp breaker is a 15 amp breaker.

Your post implies that your electrical experience is limited. There are a lot of good self-help books that will teach you about home electrical wiring. I'd recommend as a minimum you get one of these books and read it. Better yet: get several (think: library!) and read all. That may prevent serious grief later on.

Thanks. So to kill my curiosity, How do they work differently? also having Two 15 amps, does that make a 30 amp? as with batteries, depending on how you connect them, can keep the voltage the same or double it. Its a square D panel, and when i look on line for a double breaker connected together, i cannot seem to find one, would they be the same as Two single 15 amp, and connect them together with one of those rods? I guessing those rods can be purchased, my knowledge is average to good i would say, but coming from England where all of it is 240v. on a ring circuit, it take a bit of figuring out. and reading books at whatever level you are at is always a good thing, never to old to learn something.

It really isn't practical for me to try to teach you about electricity in the forum. That is why I recommended you get some books on the subject and learn from them.

I'm very concerned you will be doing things that will be dangerous so I strongly recommend you get some assistance from a person who is more knowledgeable in the field. Electricity is not always simple, easy and absolutely can be very unsafe if you are not careful.

Also, just buy the proper breakers. Don't try to kludge something together.

You say you are from England, are you still there, or in the USA?

I'm living in Canada. All the work is being checked by a electrical building inspector, for a permit, I called him today and he told me what to do. in fact, I have to use a double pole breaker with just 1 lever, as its a Square D breaker panel, and they make them as a double wide, which was what I bought, but it was just when I was about to change it over to the Generator panel, that I notice it had the 2 levers connected together, so I was unsure if I had the correct breaker, and as they both said 15 amp, wasn't sure if that created a 30 amp circuit.This is a complete basement reno, so all the work is being checked, he done the first inspection and was happy with everything I had done, apart from not putting insulation between the wire and the heating ducts, which is now done.

Thanks for your input.

Problem you may have, the inspector will ensure everything is up to code. He will not design it. The breakers may be installed correctly, but may be under sized. That is where an electrician comes in handy.

So are you saying these two breaker in the pictures are not the same, I mean just the 2 center ones on Cutler Hammer one? You just got me more concerned now, to make sure I have done it correctly. If the breaker was to small, would that mean it would it would pop more often? [IMG]

So are you saying these two breaker in the pictures are not the same, I mean just the 2 center ones on Cutler Hammer one? You just got me more concerned now, to make sure I have done it correctly. If the breaker was to small, would that mean it would it would pop more often? [IMG]

Thanks everyone, I think we have diversified from the original question, I just wanted to know if these two breaker done the same job, or if because of the two 15 amp breaker connected together created a 30 amp circuit. or if it was a different kind of breaker because of the 1 one or two levers on it.

The second image is a special breaker designed to allow more circuits per space than the first example. All 240 breakers are double with tied handles.

Keep in mind that this is more complex than you may realize, but again no one here can give you a full tutorial on how to do a change over transfer switch.

Inside your main breaker box are two bus bars, one powered by the large black wire, and one powered by the large red wire. These two wires are opposing 1/2 phases of the alternating current. In order for 220/240 single phase to work correctly, a double, tied breaker is installed so that each one connects to a different bus.

Starting at the top of the panel, the top-most breaker connects with one bus bar. The next one down connects to the opposite bus bar. As you move down the panel they alternate.

A MUCH BETTER question to ask is if the generator you are planning to use supports 240 operation....Usually it has to be a pretty large genny before it offers 220/240VAC.

A 220/240 pump will not run on two single 110VAC feeds supplied from a non-220/240VAC generator because both feeds are the same 1/2 phase.

To visualize the 1/2 phase thing - alternating current flows in both directions - pushing then pulling and pulling if you will - Both black and red wires push then pull, but black would be pushing while red is pulling and then the opposite. These opposing 1/2 phases are what makes 220/240 motors so much more efficient becuse they are designed to use both to move the stator

Thank you. Coming from England, we use 240v and works in the same kind of thing, each breaker (at least for the receptacles) run a ring main, feeding the power from each end of the wire, over there we are not allowed to have lights on the same circuit as the receptacles. I use a Honda 6500 generator, and it work well on my old house with a transfer panel. I never tried running all the circuits at the same time, as not to overload it, but in a snow storm and power goes out, its just to keep the bare essentials running. So to be back to the other breaker in the photo, as square D only make it with the single lever, I guessing they both work the same?

"Inside your main breaker box are two bus bars, one powered by the large black wire, and one powered by the large red wire. These two wires are opposing 1/2 phases of the alternating current. "

We are talking about the US, no? Then that is incorrect.

There are two buses, each 120v, that is how you get 240v. But they are not out of phase, the "phase" never enters into it. They are both the exact same phase.

Is the phases were opposed, voltage would always be zero.

It's confusing, because the term "3 phase" is used a lot, implying that there are two other phases. But house current is all one phase.