Wait a minute the subpanel only has 1 thick orange wire coming out ? You sure that's not going in? Is the subpanel next to a main panel connected with conduit? If there's more than 1 breaker in the box must be more than one wire going out unless they split that large wire and put 2 breakers on it and shared a neutral. If they did must be a junction box somewhere where they split up. If there is only 1 wire going out and more than 1 breaker in that subpanel call an electrician to trace down this mess.
Line fault at the outlet -- do I need an electrician?
Yesterday, I got a Panamax, Max 1500 surge protector and line conditioner. (I got a very good deal on it, and am just trying it out.)
I plugged it into an outlet I've been using for a while and one of the red lights on the front lit up saying "line fault." (I'm not sure how this is different from a "ground fault." Maybe it's the same.) The Panamax does not do this with other outlets in the room. They seem ok.
So, I know this means that the outlet is improperly wired. My question is, might this be a simple thing to check and/or fix? Any suggestions most appreciated. It's the only outlet I can use to have my audio set up where I usually have it. Now is not an optimal time to call an electrician. If this is a big problem, I'll try out my gear somewhere else in the room, but if I can fix this without too much expertise, that would be ideal.
I plugged it into an outlet I've been using for a while and one of the red lights on the front lit up saying "line fault." (I'm not sure how this is different from a "ground fault." Maybe it's the same.) The Panamax does not do this with other outlets in the room. They seem ok.
So, I know this means that the outlet is improperly wired. My question is, might this be a simple thing to check and/or fix? Any suggestions most appreciated. It's the only outlet I can use to have my audio set up where I usually have it. Now is not an optimal time to call an electrician. If this is a big problem, I'll try out my gear somewhere else in the room, but if I can fix this without too much expertise, that would be ideal.
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TBC: A subpanel is a panel downstream from another panel. Meaning, there’s a panel before it that has a fuse/breaker that can turn off the power to the sub panel. There is one set of breakers/fuses to a subpanel, but the subpanel may contain any number of breakers. This is useful since you can disconnect the power to the entire panel before opening it. |
Maybe the terminology is messing me up. I have one panel in the house. At the top, is the master on/off. Below are the breakers. I thought that's what you meant by subpanel. It is not a separate panel, in the sense that it is not another separate metal rectangle. There is one metal rectangle. The subpanel contains, maybe, 30 breakers. I followed a bunch of wires out of the box (9, 10?) and the orange one split off to the side of the house where I presume it is feeding the circuits/branch I mentioned. |
You don’t have a sub panel. You only have a main panel. Does it look like this? https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=breaker+panels+residential&qpvt=breaker+panels+residential&form=IGRE&first=1&cw=1117&ch=493 |
- 98 posts total