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Electrical issues with new load center

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(I am not an electrician. IIf the pink and purple wire share a neutral, then that would make them a multi wire branch circuit, and I believe that the newer codes require that the poles be connected. Nevertheless, if it is 12ga, and the wire goes only to the microwave (I.e. the microwave circuit doesn't have a piece of 14ga wire somewhere else), then the breaker for that circuit might be upgradable to 20A. (However the other circuit also has to be all 12ga as well!)

If it were me, I would have an electrician out to look at it, and ask if the circuits could be upgraded to 20A to reduce nuisance trips. From what you have shared, I would be thinking about mis-wiring issues or a bad breaker, but that's just me.

All the best,

BG
Understood! I will be requesting Tesla to send out an electrician to look at this since it's all their work in the load center.

I just don't like signing the SVA for potential $200 charge if they come up with BS reasons and say it's not their fault...
 
It does look like 12 ga wire. I will have to check it again. The neutral wire seems to be right below the pink wire in white.

Is it normal for AC to be off as well if 15 amp trips? Does the whole breaker becomes inoperable until reset?
So the labeling indicates the upper 15A is for the microwave, and the 50A double pole is for the A/C?

With a quad breaker (4 poles in 2 spaces), the outer pair and inner pair are independent. The inner pair is often (but not always) common trip, and the outer pair may be common trip or independent trip. From your photo, with just one of the 15A outer poles tripped, looks like that quad has independent trip outer poles.

Since tripping just the one 15A pole takes out both the microwave and the A/C, there is a wiring error somewhere. (E.g. the purple wire being used by the A/C, instead of the black wire.) You can confirm/demonstrate the miswiring by just manually turning of the 15A pole. That shouldn't kill the A/C on the 50A poles.

Cheers, Wayne
 
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So the labeling indicates the upper 15A is for the microwave, and the 50A double pole is for the A/C?

With a quad breaker (4 poles in 2 spaces), the outer pair and inner pair are independent. The inner pair is often (but not always) common trip, and the outer pair may be common trip or independent trip. From your photo, with just one of the 15A outer poles tripped, looks like that quad has independent trip outer poles.

Since tripping just the one 15A pole takes out both the microwave and the A/C, there is a wiring error somewhere. (E.g. the purple wire being used by the A/C, instead of the black wire.) You can confirm/demonstrate the miswiring by just manually turning of the 15A pole. That shouldn't kill the A/C on the 50A poles.

Cheers, Wayne
I see. If I understand you correctly, are you saying that 12 ga wire (purple) is being used for AC? I see a thicker ga wire in the middle on the 50 amp and that looks like the wiring for AC to me.
 
I see. If I understand you correctly, are you saying that 12 ga wire (purple) is being used for AC? I see a thicker ga wire in the middle on the 50 amp and that looks like the wiring for AC to me.
Tripping that one 15A pole will just remove power from the purple wire. If removing power from the purple wire is killing your A/C, then unless there's some sort of 120V A/C controller that is on the same circuit with your microwave, there's a miswiring. The idea that the A/C is pulling at least some of its power from the purple wire also explains why the 15A pole would trip when both the A/C and microwave are running.

But this is just informed speculation, a hypothesis.

Cheers, Wane
 
I see. If I understand you correctly, are you saying that 12 ga wire (purple) is being used for AC? I see a thicker ga wire in the middle on the 50 amp and that looks like the wiring for AC to me.
I think @wwhitney's point is that just because the wire goes to the breaker, it doesn't necessarily mean that the other end goes to the the AC, and vice versa.

My bottom line: I suspect that it is time for a professional to dig in to what is ailing this panel.

All the best,

BG
 
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I think @wwhitney's point is that just because the wire goes to the breaker, it doesn't necessarily mean that the other end goes to the the AC, and vice versa.

My bottom line: I suspect that it is time for a professional to dig in to what is ailing this panel.

All the best,

BG
Tesla is coming out later today to look at it. I will provide updates after the visit!
 
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Tesla is coming out later today to look at it. I will provide updates after the visit!

I dont see how they could charge you for it, since no changes have been made by anyone after they (tesla) did the work. Hopefully that service agreement thing is just a way for them to cover themselves when a homeowner has work done that isnt on the schematics / done my tesla, then calls tesla back out to fix it.

Thats what I suspect, but I certainly dont know.... I am interested to hear how this comes out, both from the technical side and the "were you charged" side.
 
Tesla is coming out later today to look at it. I will provide updates after the visit!


Awesome, let us know what they find! Hopefully they can just hook up a multimeter with a CT on that purple wire. It'll be pretty easy to figure out if that is feeding your microwave... so you can pop some popcorn for to snack on while they fix this.
 
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Update:

Electrician just left few moments ago. Below are the findings:
  • Microwave and Nest thermostat share the same kitchen circuit. Therefore, both lost power when the 15 amp breaker tripped. The AC did have power but obviously won't run if the thermostat is offline.
  • The breaker was undersized for the circuit (Tesla landed the 12 ga wire on 15 amp instead of 20 amp). The wire for microwave/kitchen circuit is 12 ga so they moved the wiring to the existing spare 20 amp breaker in the load center. Both 15 amp from the quad breaker were moved to spare 20 amp breaker. Therefore, the breaker was being used for AC only (50 amp).
  • I requested them to remove the quad breaker (since it wasn't new when installed) and put in a brand new 50 amp breaker only for AC. They didn't had a new quad breaker with them so 50 amp breaker works just fine for now.
  • No charges for the visit. The electrician confirmed it was a mistake made by Tesla. He stated SVA can be avoided if you reach out to the location that did the install. In my case, I saved the contact information of the warehouse/ops location for future.
Thanks everyone for your feedback. I appreciate all the assistance I get from the TMC fam!