Help! New breaker turns off power to other breakers

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jevonmckinzie

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Here is my problem. I am installing a 240v electric heater. I ran three wires for the new 40a circuit. At the heater, being dumb, I connected the two hot wires as one to L1 and the neutral white to the other hot bracket as L2, instead of connecting the red and black to both connections on the heater.

At the panel, I connected the red and black wires to the hot contacts on the breaker, and the neutral white to the neutral bus bar (but this wire was hot). When I turned back on the electrical, the new breaker I added was in the off position and I noticed several breakers that were on, the lights and power outlets were off. When switched the new breaker in the on position, then all the lights came back on.

Now, if I remove the breaker I'm not getting any power in the house or lights. So, from my dumb mistake earlier, now it seems that the only way to have power in the house is to have the neutral connected to the hot connection from the heater, which is weird and incorrect.

Is there a way to fix this or do I just need to suck it up and call an electrician??
 

3m

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Suck it up and call an electrician before the house burns down
 

Jadnashua

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Sounds like you may have blown the main breaker. Running power 'backwards' through devices can be quite unsafe. Any 240vac devices in the house may no longer work, or if they do, won't work well, since they may only be getting half the voltage they are supposed to (backing it in through neutral) and is very dangerous. You need someone who can diagnose this. If you have a meter, and know how to use it safely, check to see if you actually have 240vac after the main breaker (i.e., on any other 240vac breaker or directly on the bus bar - beware as this can be dangerous!). If not, and it is there on the input, you may need a new main breaker. But, it the process, you may have burned the distribution bus bar(s), and the whole box may need to be replaced. If you don't have 240vac coming in, you may have blown a fuse out at the street.
 

hj

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The white wire was not "hot", and if you had only connected either the red or black wires to the heater, you would have operated it as a 120 volt heater and NOT 240 volts. But, now, without making our own tests we cannot tell if you blew something or burned some wires out. Call an electrician because YOU do not have the equipment or experience to test your system.
 

jevonmckinzie

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Called electrician

I called an electrician. I was in a rush to get the heat going and instead of double checking my connections just made a huge mistake. I believe the main breaker might need to be replaced. Anyway, thanks!
 

hj

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You aren't the first, or only, one. A friend was in a hurry to get his new wall oven working and connected 240 volts to the 120 circuit. The display board was VERY bright for a few seconds before it burned out.
 

Jetlag

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If you had both red and black on one lug at the heater and red and black on the two breaker lugs , the 240 breaker would not turn on it would trip when you tried , one question is this a GE panel ? if so post reply
 
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