D-I-Why?

What happens when homeowners install their own air conditioners? A blogger reports...

It turns out that the previous owner of the house had apparently installed the air conditioning on his own. And although he properly wired the circuit with 12-gauge wire, he only used a 15-amp circuit breaker (the AC calls for 20). After about 15 years of cooking at or just over capacity, the thing slowly melted into an inevitable failure. I foolishly ignored the early warning signs — repeated trips of the same breaker — and ended up with what you see above.

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