Originally Posted by
Bob Knauff
3 conductor circuits are allowed provided the breakers are on appropriate panel legs and the handles are tied together.
Bob,
The breaker handles do not need to be tied together unless both legs of the multi-wire circuit go to the same device strap.
I wish that were a requirements, but it is not.
It's also easy for a do-it-yourself homeowner (and we all know they work on their own homes) to 're-arrange the circuits' while adding or removing something, and that is not a good thing with multi-wire circuits as you could end up with both legs on the same phase bus, which would cause the neutral to carry *BOTH* loads (assuming loads are 'on' on both legs, potentially resulting in twice the neutral current as the circuit was designed for) instead of either *ONE* load (assuming only one load is 'on' one leg) or *THE DIFFERENCE* between both loads (assuming loads on 'on' on both legs, only the difference in their current is carried by the neutral).
Again, allowed, yes.
Usually done to save money.
Is it a reportable item?
It would not hurt to advise your client that the panel has one or more (in this case all or almost all) circuits which are multi-wire and that extreme care should be used when they are anyone else is attempting to do any work in the panel, extreme care meaning that the multi-wire circuits should not be relocated without knowing what a multi-wire circuit is and what is required of a multi-wire circuit (i.e., that a multi-wire circuit is two 120 volt circuits, wired as a single 240 volt circuit with a neutral, and with *NO* 240 volt loads allowed on that circuit).