[Shop-talk] Square D QO breaker Box

[David Scheidt]

> On Apr 14, 2021, at 13:10, Brian K <bk13 at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> I'd reach out to Square D and see their recommendation for 120v options. There may be a bus bar jumper designed to connect the bars. They may even recommend a better panel.

In olden days, there is were 120v 2 wire panels. They were commonly called “woodshed “ panels, and were used in farm outbuildings.  You had more than a single circuit load, but not much more, and it saved a wire. I don’t know if any one still makes them.  




> 
>  I'm under the impression that you can't connect multiple wires in a breaker lug. Even had a home inspector write up two wires on the same breaker as a violation

In general you can’t have two wires under a lug. They are not designed for it, and can come loose. You can put more than one ground wire under a screw if the bar is listed for that ( most are). You cant put more than one neutral under a bus screw, because of the risk of disconnecting a neutral from a live circuit. 

Some breakers, notably homeline ones, are rated for two wires.  Inspectors still call it out, because it’s on their checklist. (The guy who inspected my house called that out, but not the 50a 120v breakers with 14 gauge wire.  What the hell uses 50a 120v, btw? They had done it so outlets didn’t trip the breaker.  ). 


> Brian
> 
> On Apr 14, 2021 8:22 AM, Jack Brooks <JIBrooks at live.com> wrote:
> Mark,
> 
>  
> 
> Yes, that screw down connection is sized for 2/0, so I can squeeze two wires in one side of the circuit and run one over to the other side.  This seemed logical, but I just wanted to be sure that it was a reasonable solution.
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you,
> 
>  
> 
> Jack
> 
>  
> 
> From: Shop-talk <shop-talk-bounces at autox.team.net> On Behalf Of Mark Miller
> Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2021 12:19 AM
> To: shop-talk at autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Square D QO breaker Box
> 
>  
> 
> It is designed to be fed by 240V (2 phase 120) power.  If you are feeding it with a single leg of 120V just tie the two main lugs together and run that from your power source.  The lugs should be large enough to have your incoming power go into one and then have a second wire in that lug feed the other lug.
> 
> Regards,
>  
> Mark Miller   707-490-5834
> markmiller at threeboysfarm.com
> On 4/13/2021 10:01 PM, shop-talk-request at autox.team.net wrote:
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Scheidt <dmscheidt at gmail.com> 
> Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2021 7:58 PM
> To: Jack Brooks <JIBrooks at live.com>
> Cc: Shop Talk <shop-talk at autox.team.net>
> Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Square D QO breaker Box
>  
> On Tue, Apr 13, 2021 at 6:39 PM Jack Brooks <JIBrooks at live.com> wrote:
> I am building a Sprinter van into an RV and have a question about the 120v breaker box (SquareD QO24L70RBCP).  It is a 2-Space, 4-Circuit load center.  My concern is that while the Neutral bar has four positions on a common bar, the two breaker connections are independent, without a common bar between the two.  This surprised the heck out of me. My inverter (Victron 24/70/3000)  has a single AC output with a ?cage clamp? terminal, not a screw down or stud terminal which would be easy. I can run a 6 or 8 AWG from the inverter to the Breaker box, but it needs to go to the two separate screw down terminals.  Physically, I believe I can run an 8 AWG wire into one breaker, and then back out to the other breaker, but I?m concerned about whether this is a code violation.
> 
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