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I have an older General Electric panel that I need to install a 30-amp tandem circuit breaker to create

2 240 volt circuits. The GE panel accepts TQL-AC, TQAL-AC, THQL-AC, THQA, TXQL, type breakers. What brands are interchangable that would fit the GE panel.

Terry A Tullis
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    Why are you looking for an alternative? All those GE breakers you listed are widely available at reasonable prices. – Nate S. Feb 12 '21 at 21:49
  • If you're hoping to use half-width tandem breakers to get a 240V circuit in a 1" slot, it looks like you're probably out of luck -- GE's tandem breakers are called THQP, which your panel does not list, and GE uses a different connection mechanism for these than any other manufacturer, so there are no substitutes available. – Nate S. Feb 12 '21 at 21:57
  • Can we have a photo of the panel and the panel labeling? You can [edit] this into your question. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Feb 12 '21 at 22:46
  • Yes, can we have photos of your panel, including clear shots of the labeling on the inside of the door please? – ThreePhaseEel Feb 13 '21 at 00:04

1 Answers1

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Short version: you can't cross breaker brands. You cannot put a competitor breaker type in this panel.

A "tandem" breaker is not what you want. Here is an article about those.

What you're hoping to use is a THQP breaker, which appears very similar to a tandem breaker, however, is actually a 2-pole breaker that is half-height. On certain GE panels, GE has a system that uses 1/2" tall (half-height) breakers, 2 per breaker space. Their 2-pole breakers in that system are 1" tall and straddle 2 breaker spaces, with a 1/2" breaker above and below them.

You can't use them. Those half-width breakers clip onto a special cross-bars added to the bus stabs, and your bus stabs don't have them. You can see the cross-bars in the lower 5 rows of this panel here:

enter image description here

Harper - Reinstate Monica
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