Kitchen Outlet Problems part 2

[djwestly]

In an earlier post I mentioned how a kitchen outlet wasn't working properly.
Been looking at/learning about electrical wiring and have more information.

I checked the outlet voltage with a multi-meter. When I connect the hot + ground, I see 120v. When I connect the hot + neutral,. I see around 60v. This also happens with the other outlets on the circuit. I have a 2nd circuit in the kitchen with outlets that are also behaving this way (hot + neutral shows 60v on the outlets). I checked other circuits in the house and see 120v for both. So I believe something is wrong with the 2 kitchen circuits.

I traced the wires for BOTH circuits to a single junction box. The wire coming from the main panel to this junction box has 4 wires (red, black, white, bare copper). In the box, the ground wires are tied together with a wire nut. The white/neutral wires are also tied together with a wire nut (sort of).

Something happened to the connected neutral wires. The wire nut cap apparently fell off (just the plastic cap, not the metal spiral piece holding the wires together) and the wires look melted. The other wires and wire nuts in the junction box look okay. My first thought was that either I had too many appliances on each circuit or appliances were drawing too much power. Decided to look in the main panel.

I took the panel cover off and figured out which cable feeds the junction box with the melted neutrals. The black wire goes to a breaker on the left column while the red wire goes to a breaker on the right column. These two breakers are on the same row, next to each other.

I think this is called a multi wire circuit branch. This type allows you to power two circuits with one cable from a panel. I looked at examples on the web but I haven't been able to find any with the wires going to (left/right) breakers on the same row. I only see them going to breakers on the same column, one right above the other. So now I don't know if it was too many appliances that melted the neutrals or it was the arrangement of the breakers (or it was something else).

Anyone know if the red and black wires are connected correctly to my breakers?
If they are, any ideas on why the neutral wires melted?

Thanks,
Dave

[adnadeau]

Your breakers are NOT wired correctly. First of all, Section 210.4(B) of the NEC specifies that the the ungrounded connectors must be disconnected simultaneously. If you have 2 breakers that are not physically tied together, one for black & one for red, then you are not up to code. As for the white wire, if your 2 breakers are on opposite sides of your main panel & on the same row, then they are on the same phase of your electrical service. If you had a double breaker with the red wire on one & the black wire on the other, then they would be on different phases due to the construction of the main panel. The way yours are wired, the neutral will be carrying the load from both branches. With a double breaker the loads would tend to balance out & the neutral would carry much less current. Here's a link to a good resource: https://www.mikeholt dot com/mojonewsarchive/ET-HTML/HTML/UnderstandingDangersMultiwireBranchCircuits~200202 18.htm (replace the word dot with a period).

[paulioN1]

Wow, I'm learning a lot right now