How Do You Wire Double Pole Circuit Breakers?
Adding a new circuit breaker to the service panel is perhaps the easiest part of wiring a new circuit in a house. Heavy-duty appliances like dryers and ovens each require their own 220/240-volt circuit, and while the wiring is done in the same fashion as any other household circuit, connecting a two-pole breaker for a heavy-duty circuit is a little different. Make sure your box can accept another 220/240-volt circuit before beginning any work. The box must have two adjacent unused circuit-breaker spaces. If no adjacent spaces are available, you can have an electrician wire a subpanel. Turn off the electrical current to the service panel. This will halt the flow of electricity to the entire house, so keep a flashlight nearby. Remove the covers from the empty spaces in the service panel by prying them out with a screwdriver. Make the electrical connections. Connect the hot wires — one black and one red — from the circuit to the two-pole breaker. The neutral wire from the 220/240-volt c