ctviggen
Well-Known Member
I have discovered in my early 2000s house that they wired two circuits in the kitchen using 12/3 wiring with two INDEPENDENT 20 amp breakers for each hot leg. In other words, you can turn off one leg via one breaker while the other one is on.
According to this:
https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/12868/can-two-circuits-share-a-neutral
They appear to be correctly wired in the sense that each leg goes to a different phase. However, it seems as if I should replace the two independent breakers with a (single) two pole circuit breaker.
Does this seem like a wise thing to do?
How I found this was I was going to add a GFCI breaker and remove the GFCI outlet in the circuit. The GFCI outlet protects three other outlets on this circuit, and for various reasons, I wanted to use a GFCI breaker instead to protect the whole circuit and remove the GFCI outlet. So, I ordered the proper 20 amp, single pole breaker for my breaker box and installed it...only to realize the above issue.
I assume that having a single pole GFCI breaker on one leg of a shared circuit (aka multi-wired branch circuit) is not a good thing to do? (I immediately went back to the "old" circuit once I saw this issue.)
Can I install a two pole GFCI circuit breaker in this situation?
According to this:
https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/12868/can-two-circuits-share-a-neutral
They appear to be correctly wired in the sense that each leg goes to a different phase. However, it seems as if I should replace the two independent breakers with a (single) two pole circuit breaker.
Does this seem like a wise thing to do?
How I found this was I was going to add a GFCI breaker and remove the GFCI outlet in the circuit. The GFCI outlet protects three other outlets on this circuit, and for various reasons, I wanted to use a GFCI breaker instead to protect the whole circuit and remove the GFCI outlet. So, I ordered the proper 20 amp, single pole breaker for my breaker box and installed it...only to realize the above issue.
I assume that having a single pole GFCI breaker on one leg of a shared circuit (aka multi-wired branch circuit) is not a good thing to do? (I immediately went back to the "old" circuit once I saw this issue.)
Can I install a two pole GFCI circuit breaker in this situation?