Fire toy making party, my place.

The furnace is running again, much to my delight, and no thanks to BGE. Frank stopped by and asked if anything had improved, so I went to try my washer and dryer. It was at that point that I realized that my washer and dryer (which worked perfectly) and my furnace all run off power provided from a 120 volt outlet.

Going back to look at the circuit box I realized that the only thing that runs on 240 volt power is my air conditioner. I was still confused by the breaker box because there were two wires (my two feeds) going into either side of the panel and outlets and lights working off each side of the breaker box.

Then I noticed the schematic diagram on the side of the box which said that the feeds alternated breaker rows from top to bottom. This allowed the double-width breakers to straddle the two feeds when tripping for 240 volt devices. Since its about 56 degrees outside today (and probably that or lower for the next six months), I took the air conditioner breaker out and popped in one of the new breakers I bought last night into the row fed by the live line. Two switch flips later I had a working furnace.

Over the last few days, I've learned that every house has two 120 v lines and a ground coming in. In the circuit breaker box, the electrician decides which of those lines feeds what circuits in the house. The appliances that need 240 volts to work, like the air conditioner, use both. My heater just happened to be on the broken one

I also noticed the braided coil which feeds into some sort of common ground screw panel. All of those common grounds pair up with their hot counterparts on their way to different parts of the house.

I feel like I've learned something very important today. The short tutorial from JWZ that ding-0- posted yesterday didn't hurt either.

Meanwhile, my elderly neighbor next door is going to be under three blankets tonight because BGE promised her power by this afternoon and didn't deliver.

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