So let’s say a house has 150 AMP service, and there were two dedicated 15 AMP breakers dedicated to this device, does the current split evenly, to work like 30AMPs, or would it trip at 15 AMPs?
This is a theoretical question, I assume code would be against this anyway, and I would not do it, but would it work?
In: Engineering
Consider this: you have an accidental house fire completely unrelated to your jerry-rigged electric solution, and your home insurance refuses to cover the damages anyway, hopefully without anyone you care about being hurt.
For your, your family’s, and your neighbors’ sakes, please have an electrician inspect and upgrade the wiring and fuse. It could be less than a hundred dollars, especially if the wiring is suitable and the breaker simply needs to be swapped out. A reputable electrician can give a free quote within a couple of minutes of looking at it.
Edit: I didn’t see your disclaimer when I wrote this, but it’s exactly the kind of crazy thing someone might try.
The current would not split evenly. It would split in inverse proportion to the relative resistances on the two parallel paths to the load. Those resistances (i.e. the wiring from the breaker box to the outlets) will be very low but not zero, and they won’t be exactly equal to each other. The more unequal they are, the more unequal the share of current they’ll each be bearing. If they’re unequal enough to exceed 15 amperes on one side (very likely) then that breaker will pop first, leaving *all* the current to go throught the other, causing it to immediately pop too.
tl;dr It’s unlikely to work
One thing to remember is that a 15A breaker doesn’t trip at 15A. Not entirely sure on the US graphs but it likely doesn’t trip until 21A and even then it may be up to 10,000 seconds before it does. Instant trip tends to be 3-5 times the rating.
can be rephrased as “can I share a load across two breakers” or “can I parallel two breakers to increase current capacity”. yes you can. but it is extremely unsafe and someone may die.
if one breaker cuts out for any reason, the entire load gets carried by the other breaker. if one of the two neutrals on your 30A load gets disconnected for any reason, the entire load gets carried by the other neutral. the breaker only protects the hots. the remaining neutral will melt and burn.
all this is assuming your two breakers are on the same phase. if they are not then you will get 220V instead and just blow up your device.
get an electrician.
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