Hot Swap Breaker

[jyl]

I have to change a breaker in a panel with no master cutoff.

My electrician friend says: turn off breaker, pull it out, push new one in, wear gloves, be careful.

Is it that easy?

[Dantilla]

Yup.


Pull old breaker out, remove wire.
Insert wire into new breaker before plugging it back into the panel.
Flip breaker on.
Done.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

do it all the time. Still here to type this. OK, with only one finger pecking, but

[MBAtarga]

You do have to use care when removing the panel cover - don't let any of it fall back into the breaker box.

[masraum]

I shouldn't admit this, but I do a lot of electrical work on live wires. "Be very careful" is a big, big part of it.

[stevej37]

I've done it many times.
Wear good soled shoes...never do it sock footed or barefooted.

[A930Rocket]

This.

Originally Posted by Dantilla

Pull old breaker out, remove wire.
Insert wire into new breaker before plugging it back into the panel.
Flip breaker on.
Done.

[Cajundaddy]

Rubber gloves, rubber soled shoes, one hand in your pocket so you don't inadvertently touch ground, no pets coming around to touch a cold wet nose on you at exactly the wrong time. I have changed breakers, wired up J-boxes, light switches, outlets this way. It's always best if you can de-energize the panel or circuit but sometimes you have to deal with what is.

[jyl]

if you don’t hear from me after this weekend, send herr oberst around to find out happened

[masraum]

Originally Posted by jyl

if you don’t hear from me after this weekend, send herr oberst around to find out happened

Careful...

[look 171]

Not so fast sending Herr but you will look great with curly hair.

[jyl]

what hair ha ha

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by jyl

what hair ha ha

You might grow a few after a good jolt!

[peppy]

I didn't see it mentioned, but no metal jewelry on your hands or wrists.

[masraum]

What could go wrong? Nothing to worry about!

[Zeke]

Honestly, changing out a breaker itself while hot is no big deal. First, make sure the breaker is "off." But what can and will bite you is something unintended. You just never know about silly things that can turn ugly so take precaution. Everything said so far here goes a long way to make sure you are safe. I had to smile a bit about the pet. I hadn't thought of that one while I was thinking of an earthquake happening just as you reach in.

Pretty extreme circumstances but if you do the one hand and are not grounded, even that should turn out OK for you. But yeah, weird things have happened right at the moment like a bee sting.

What's this about no disconnect to the panel feed? That is not right. Looking into that might be a good move.

[908/930]

Strange, no main disconnect does not sound correct. Likely a good idea to have somebody around when working on live panel. Something I was not aware of is an electric shock can cause heart problems many minutes after, walking away does not indicate you are fine.

[jyl]

I found the main shutoff, it is on the external panel (?). I’ll post a pic later. So no hot swap needed.

The breaker I was replacing is not defective. There is a short somewhere in the circuit.

The circuit involves 1) the ceiling light which has two NMC cables (call them “A” and “B”) which I recall were connected and the old light pigtailed off the junction (I’m replacing with canless), 2) the light switch on the wall a few feet away, 3) an outlet on the wall directly below the light switch. That’s all the stuff that doesn’t work when the breaker is tripped.

When I connect the two NMC cables (black to black, etc) and the new light, the breaker trips. When I delete the light, the breaker trips. When I disconnect the “cold” cable B, and connect just the “hot” cable A to the light, the breaker does not trip, the light works, the outlet works, but the switch does nothing.

Hmm. I had assumed the outlet was wired to the switch (lots of weird stuff like that here), hot cable A came from the switch and powered this light and something else further down the line via cold cable B. But no.

Well, this is a mystery. I haven’t given it more than 5 minutes’ pondering, so not sure if it is a deep mystery or I’m just stupid.

Worst case, the light will just be on 24/7 until my electrician comes in a couple months to do a bunch of work and she can sort this out. We leave lights on at night anyway, to signal to would-be squatters that the building is not vacant.

[Zeke]

Sounds like your hots are cross phased. Get a simple circuit tracer. There are live and dead versions.

[Dpmulvan]

Neutral isn’t always necessarily cold in a switch loop.