Scott,
That "4 pole" breaker comes from a commodity 120/240 Volt 200 Amp single phase residential load center. There are a lot of these installed. The 4 pole breaker lug side, in the factory assembly, is connected to the load center breaker buss bars. The other side of the breaker pressed onto a small bus that connected to a 250 Kcmil lug, two lugs, one on the left half and one on the right half of the breaker.
The creativity of this handyman for applying this breaker in this manner impresses me, but what takes my breath away is the profound lack of appreciation for resistive heating, and the obvious disregard for whether the breaker will be able to work at all when hooked up like a standard double pole. The handyman set up each half of the breaker to have 240V across it, while, as originally manufactured, it would be connected to the same buss.
Al
