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I moved into a new house a few months ago, and I had a rather rude realization today that ALL of the outlets and light fixtures in the master bedroom, living room, family room, hallway, guest bathroom, and one of the other bedrooms are on the same 240v breaker. That's basically half the entire house.

Setting aside the fact that it's way too many rooms for just two circuits, why would whoever wired this use a single 240v 15a breaker in the panel instead of two 120v ones?

Wes Sayeed
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    That is called a "multi wire branch circuit" or MWBC or shared neutral. It is run with one /3 cable instead of two /2 cables. It saves some money.

    It is required to have a handle-tie to protect maintainers. To assure they turn off the entire circuit. This can be done as either - two 1-pole breakers with a listed handle-tie

    • a 2-pole breaker.

    The difference is the 2-pole breaker will have common trip (one side overloads both sides trip) whereas handle-ties will not guarantee common trip.

     – Harper - Reinstate Monica Oct 20 '23 at 21:34
  • Is this a new built house, or an older house new to you? It does not seem to be in newer code, but if in code when built is okay, but can be upgraded. – crip659 Oct 20 '23 at 21:49
  • @crip659; It was built in 1992. – Wes Sayeed Oct 20 '23 at 22:35

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