Am I hearing things?

jea48
. I looked downstairs in the electrical panel and no and nowhere is there a 15, 20, 25, or 30.marked on the breakers. Is there a secret code electricians use? I goggled it and no help. What would make a breaker trip with my audio hooked up. The only thing that tripped in my house was the outlet with the microwave and blender going at one time. I've had the 600 watt amp for 6 years with nothing tripped there so I should be ok. Right?

I looked downstairs in the electrical panel and no and nowhere is there a 15, 20, 25, or 30.marked on the breakers. Is there a secret code electricians use?

The ampere rating should be on the ON/OFF breaker handle. Sometimes it’s printed on the face of the breaker. The ampere rating should be visible on the front of the breaker for the user to see. What manufacture electrical panel do you have?

Example.
20 amp breaker.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Square-D-QO-20-Amp-Single-Pole-Circuit-Breaker-QO120CP/100028706

15 amp breaker
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Square-D-Homeline-15-Amp-Single-Pole-Circuit-Breaker-HOM115CP/100153952

20 amp breaker
https://www.ebay.com/p/GE-THQL-THQL1120-1-Pole-20-Amp-Circuit-Breaker/2254530853https://www.homedepot.com/p/Siemens-20-Amp-Single-Pole-Type-QP-Circuit-Breaker-Q120U/100044919


Did you find the breaker/space panel numbers for the 2 dedicated circuits for your audio system?

What to look for. In the majority cases the odd numbers are on the left side of the panel and the even numbers on the right side.

Example.
Single phase 120/240 Volt panel.
L = Line, Leg, Bus.


Left side ...........................................Right side

L1.. breaker/space #1) ........ breaker/space #2)

L2 .. breaker/space #3) ......... Breaker/space #4)

L1 .. #5) ............................................... #6)

L2 .. #7) ............................................... #8)

L1 .. #9) ............................................... #10)

L2 .. 11) ............................................... #12)

And so on down each side of the panel

Yes the 25 was right on the swtich. I overlooked it big time

Is there any other issues I should know for a COMMON NEUTRAL*

Hi Elizabeth,

The first thing I would wonder is if the neutral wiring that is common to the two circuits is rated to be able to conduct 40 amps, which it would have to if and when 20 amps is being drawn from each of the circuits.

Also, I can envision that sort of arrangement being conducive to ground loop issues in some systems, because the unequal currents in the hot and neutral conductors, and their differing distances from the safety ground conductors, would tend to increase hum and noise voltages that are electromagnetically induced in the safety grounds. (I’m assuming that there are safety ground conductors, and that they are physically close to either the hot or neutral conductors)

Jim (Jea48) is more knowledgeable about this kind of thing than I am, though, especially from a code standpoint. We’ll see what he has to say.

Best regards,
-- Al