circuit breaker as an input device

If I remember correctly, code "requires" a breaker in the main panel to feed the sub panel. Your 30 amp breaker protects the wiring that runs from the main panel out to the sub panel in your green house. If you were ever to cut the wire with a shovel or something, that breaker is what would prevent the whole system from shorting out.

The 15 amp breakers in your green house protect the wiring for your individual light and outlet circuits.

Your configuration is normal, and I have the exact same setup powering a sub panel in my shed.

However, unlike the main panel, the neutral bus should be isolated from the ground bus in the sub panel. You should also have an additional ground rod installed out at the greenhouse to suppliment the ground at the subpanel.

The US power grid uses "alternating current" (AC). The electrons flow from positive to negative, then reverse to flow backward from negative to positive (rising and falling in a sine wave). In the US the current alternates back and forth like this 60 times a second (60 hz). So technically, the electricity is flowing in both directions.

From a practical standpoint you have a supply (the power grid, generator, etc.), and a load (lights, heaters, radios, computers, etc.). Without the load, current isn't flowing either direction. :)

Anthony Watson watsondiy.com mountainsofware.com

Reply to
HerHusband
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There are exceptions but that's certainly the way I'd do it. The issue wasn't feeding the sub through a breaker in the main, though. The issue was feeding the sub *backwards* through a breaker in the sub (with a breaker also in the main). This normal.

True but irrelevant. There is a "source" and a "sink". The breaker can't tell the difference, so it doesn't know it's being back-fed (which is the subject under discussion).

Huh?

Reply to
krw

Electrons move both directions, and slower than you think.

But saying electricity is flowing in both directions is misleading.

Uh, you know you can measure voltage drop along a long wire from source to sink, right?

Reply to
TimR

You would be wrong but that seems to be the norm, here.

The breaker cannot. It cannot tell where the source or load is. It doesn't know where the power is coming from or where it's going.

Reply to
krw

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