Why is my Breaker Tripping?
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
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A loose connection to the breaker can cause a trip, too. The connection heats up and trips the breaker''s thermal overload. I had to tighten my central air wires to its breaker after multiple trips.
When I ran a data center we had thermal pictures taken 1-2 times a year to find these before they tripped.
Indeed.
And imagine if the person watching this video has a breaker that trips due to a short circuit, and tries to do what is demonstrated here..
My guess is that he would say something like " Why am i not able to get any reading of amps on my meter..?? As soon as i flip the breaker back ON.. it goes back to the middle position, and i get no reading..."
😝😝
Exactly right, I had the same thing happened to me with aluminum wire. It was driving me nuts. My wife's dad is a sparky he said go make sure the lugs are tight. I snugged them up and it solved the issue. In my opinion aluminum wire should be illegal.
Harmonics also can cause a trip too.
@@Rob-vg6lw harmonics? Really? Care to expound?
They rarely ever trip at the rating. It’s usually much higher. Stay under 16A or 80% and you will usually be fine.
It does trip whenever current exceeds the rating, but not immediately. It's because many motors have in-rush current, which is higher than the normal amperage. So basically, if a 20 A breaker draws 22 A, it's not gonna trip unless it's drawing 22 A for too long. But if it was a 15 A breaker, it would definitely trip pretty quickly as at 22 A.
@@aurvaroy6670correct because that extra 2 amps will eventually trip the thermal overload
They absolutely should *NOT* trip at their rating. The rating is the maximum magnitude of the current which the breaker is required to carry. You do NOT want it tripping at the rating.
@@deang5622ust looked up the typical trip curve characteristics for an ABB residential feeder breaker. There's some error bars on the diagram, so the typical application will be somewhere between those bars, but the absolute minimum of allowable breakers allows for one that will trip after 1000 seconds at rated voltage. So potentially, if you got a breaker that happened to be in the extrema of those that passed inspection, it might break at rated voltage, but after well over 10 minutes.
You absolutely should*NOT* plan to regularly put 20A through a 20A breaker. Please allow for some safety factor. And don't forget that a device drawing 20A RMS is actually drawing over 28A peak. That 1.414x factor can knock an entire order of magnitude off the typical trip time
We had a problem a while back with mice but before we could get rid of them they had chewed through an ice maker water line and possibly a wire to our central heating and cooling. If anyone is willing to answer a few questions id really appreciate it.
1) Is there any way to know if other wires in the house have been damaged.
2) If other wires have been damaged and were to short out or arc would it most likely trip the breaker or continue to arc to an eventual fire?
Great explanation. Technically, anything you plug in the house consumes electricity, not generates.
As you plug more things, the impedance will decrease and current will increase
Sometimes it will just be a worn out breaker too.
Yep. Circuit Breakers do wear-out w/ age And usage.
yep. you can load test or just change the breaker.
Even brand new breakers are bad 😅
On another video an electrician commented that his company load tests all breakers at their facility before giving them the OK for installation. He said they find about 2 faulty breakers per 1000 tested. (Or was it one faulty breaker for every two thousand tested🤔)
True
I have wired up a lot of homes but have yet to have a 120/208 configuration in a residential setting. Im sure its possible. If you are tripping breakers due to too many amps with this setup you severely need to rethink what it is you're trying to achieve. I have however wired a few homes where EMT was ran in a residential setting. I liked it tbh. Be safe!
I am an HVAC contractor retires, still working, I give you thumbs up for your professionalism and the way you explained. Congratulations. Keep up the goo work. I am sure with this demonstration many out there are learning something.
I can't relate to the thing at the start, but the information at the end is actually super useful. It explains why turning on my heat gun dims the lights, but my air conditioner doesn't do it.
"Have you ever been at home and looked inside your 120/208V 3 phase panel?" 😂😂😂
Yeah I was wondering why he has 208v three phase at home lol. Maybe it is for an apartment building?
Grow house
Actually, a former neighbor did have it in his house.
Probably just the A/C unit using the 3 phase
@@gravelydon7072 I could see three phase being useful if you have a house and then a guest house as well. Might be fun to wire that!
In a nutshell:
#1 overloading the circuit
#2. Faulty breaker (worn)
#3 Inappropriate breaker (not rated for the load)
#4. The device/load has a problem or defective.
#5. Loose connections
#6. And there could be a problem with the "Service Drop" (from the power source to the house)
Love your videos. Your explanation-hand gestures scare me near that open panel a bit lol. A couple of them seemed mighty close while you were looking away. This comment is out of a place of love. Keep rockin!
This sort of stuff is really helpful as an apprentice please do more
Phew, glad he made it through without that flailing left hand hitting an exposed bus bar
IKR?! I'm sure he'll do a safety video one day.
@@pyrosquid3653 He should not be putting his hands in a live panel without gloves on.
Heaters are basically a controlled short and draw lots of current. I had a lady that said her lights were going dim at times and flickering. The cause was a Bidet tied into the lighting circuit. The clamp on ammeter is a must have tool for trouble shooting. Great job bro.
Awesome video.. question I have a 100 amp breaker box but I want to swap it to 125 would that be I should just be sure that I don't over load it
that nice machine of yours uses whats called a hal effect sensor aslong as they use a quality one inside then its pretty accurate the cheaper ones may not be as much. also the cheaper ones are not so good with smaller voltages or amperage
The meter just tells you what’s being pulled on a given circuit at that moment. It could be one item or multiple items causing a breaker to trip. That’s when you have to take stock of what’s on when and where.
This man makes me want to go back to the electrical field
You may end up getting magnetized if you do that.
Nah don't man if u do make sure u go to a good company
Yes I miss my electrical years
Nothing wrong getting a license. It’s a 100k retirement certificate without doing nothing but signing docs.
Yep, I've done many circuit divisions with new breaker and home run installations.
Wouldn't the breaker tripping be enough to know which circuit is problematic? I mean using the multimeter only serves to identify a bad breaker in this situation.
Does it generate a lot of electricity or consume..😊
What kind of meter is that and how much? I just have a cheap one. Wanting to upgrade? Thanks
One other reason is they are not switch rated and repeated trips have weakened them. That would show up with lower than rated current measured, but the breaker still trips. A lot of old homes out there.
You can use VFDs for running 3 phase. A 5hp drive fed 208/230 can run 2hp 3ph. I havent tried 277, but thats not normal in resi
Depending on the age of a breaker, after multiple trips they can trip at a lower load or amp draw. As I saw in another reply keep the load under 80% of the rating of the breaker. It can be a mind twister figuring out the root cause.
Can you go over what ppe you should wear when you open a panel up?
Portable A/C units also generate heat fyi.
When our grid voltage hits 255/440V my isolators trip, it happens a lot these days.
It may have something to do with us and our neighbours all dumping 25kVA or whatever their connection maxes out on on these 70y old cables.
I had a dedicated outlet that I knew only had 8 amps load at peak, but kept tripping. Thought it might be a weak breaker, I had spares so I started to replace it. I noticed when replacing it that both line and hot screws were not quite tight. Torqued them down, proceded to the receptical and it turned out to be a back-stab piece of crap, replaced it with a commercial back wire and torqued it down. Loose screws and crappy back-stab receptical was the issue. That prompted me to replace every receptical and re-torque EVERY screw. I found half were not tight in a 20 year old house.
Really easy to understand thank you.
Is that a residential property??
Iv never seen a three way phase panel other than in commercial properties.
Honest question: I'm ignorant. What if house/whatever had like 24gauge wiring instead of 12ga.: would that trip a breaker
0r
12ga. Aluminum wiring instead of copper of same gauge??
When I build I plan to use 10/3 copper throughout except where higher amperage-items will be on line.
Thanks!
24 would catch on fire likely before even a 15 amp would trip alone a 20 amp would that would be a very small diameter wire especially compared to 12 gage wire the breakers purpose other than a switch to Circuit it's purpose is to protect the wiring before it catches on fire and burns down a building. 12/3 with ground is all u should need most of ur cercuits; 10 is harder to work with especially solid wire unless u have very long runs 12/3 with ground should be fine the house I live in is wired with nothing less than 12/3 with ground Romex. Ps even if u use 10 gage to recipticals u. Still well likely by code not be allowed to use
larger than a 20 amp breaker to those types of circuits ( 15and20 amp rated recipticals ) same probably to lights and like loads. Read and watch information on how to wire remember must have electrical permit if u live were u are allowed to dyi ur own electrical work.
in spected by an electrical by a licecned
I had a lighting circuit continually tripping. I did tons of investigating on appliances and wiring and then I simply replaced the breaker. No more tripping. The breaker was knackered or work out….
Informative video, although cooling does draw a lot of power. Compressor, condenser fan, evaporator fan and so on.
Slight correction:
Heaters generate …heat
They do not generate electricity.
Heaters draw amps while they conduct electricity through them
Yes! Resistance generates heat,
Unless it’s at the power SOURCE, ie power plant
As a former residential electrician and current maintenance tech I recently bought my house and inspected the panel and found my garage with 12 gauge was on a 30amp double throw point is it would be cool if you could do a video on that 😂
It's about "current draw" (amperage). You might want to change your verbage there. Heaters don't generate electricity. They just draw more current
I use the clamp a lot! Very useful
Please do more diagnostic work! I subscribed to electrician u but there’s so much more diagnostic work to learn
This is really helpful
Anything that generates heat, generates a lot of electricity? Consumes or uses maybe
You have 3 phase 208 at your house? 🤔
That was my first thought lol. Must be nice
It's not 3 phase from the look of it. It is split phase. So they center tap the transformer and the center tap become the neutral with 2 hot wires that most of the time (depends on the setup) are 120V if you measure between the two hots you get 240V. So the neutral just splits 240V into 2 120V hots
@@thebuttracoon8245 look again at the panel, that a three phase bus, and there's three live wires, coming in the top.
@@thebuttracoon8245 4 wire split phase?
We had a problem a while back with mice but before we could get rid of them they had chewed through an ice maker water line and possibly a wire to our central heating and cooling. If anyone is willing to answer a few questions id really appreciate it.
1) Is there any way to know if other wires in the house have been damaged.
2) If other wires have been damaged and were to short out or arc would it most likely trip the breaker or continue to arc to an eventual fire?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Justin, you said anything with heat generates a lot of electricity.
I believe you meant to say, anything with heat "consumes" a lot of electricity and creates heat.
Not just with the heating equipment, but also with the electrical system. The more power that is consumed, the more heat that gets generated on the wires, breakers and all components of the electrical system.
This theory is important to understand for so many different reasons from wire size, conduit size, breaker size etc.
Could also be a breaker with close to full load amperage, then a motor load starts…
Motor loads can draw 6 times the full load amperage for a split second while the windage starts.
But that is enough on an already loaded circuit.
However, is it possible to replace that circuit breaker with another circuit of a higher amperage or would that not work?
Well this is a good simple explanation of max load popping a breaker but doesn't cover the prolonged 90% load popping breaker. Many breakers are designed to pop when there is a continuous load of 90% of the total breaker rating, so if you have a 20 amp breaker and have a load of 18 amps for over 30 seconds it may pop the breaker and the 20 amp is the maximum shock load like for starting powerful equipment like say a table saw, so really you may only be able to use up to 90% of the peak rating on a continued duration.
Are there points to touch multimeter leads to the ends of those wires to get that reading or does that only give voltage? Cause a meter I have but that device I don’t.
The panel has 3 lines coming in, one flagged red and the other should be Blue and black. There's a White neutral in the top right corner. The panel 120/208 3 phase, "Y"
I had an issue... Did all the math and was thinking i should be using 20A on a 30A breaker but it was still flipping.... Figured the weird wiring of my old house had something I wasn't accounting for on but nope... Replaced it and noticed the old breker had cracked (thus was actually able to trip way more easily)
I would highly recommend adding a dedicated circuit for any type of heater.
How do you balance your service panel?
208 three phase or three phase Delta wild leg?
Good, simple reasoning.
You should try F.P.E. breakers, I've heard they have a lot of extra amperage capacity than their rating.
I have a new house build in 2021. ALL breakers installed are those new "self test" or whatever breakers. (KB home) I had to call an electrician 2 separate times because the dishwasher and fridge breaker kept tripping. They were replaced with a regular breaker. Electrician said it's because the "new style" breakers are unnecessary and unreliable.
Are they all GFCI breakers?? I'm seeing similar symptoms
Why dose your home have a 3 phase panel?
This a three phase panel? That's the only reason I can think of for the 4 feeds into the top and the blue wires used.
I’m all in for these troubleshooting videos!
Great information 👍
This is a bad information video
@@martf1061
Meh...
He simply did not go into the actual trip points of a breaker. I do not think he was discussing short driven trips.
Goo to know that heaters generate a lot of electricity....
Do you think I could line up a hundred of them and sell the electricity back to the power company?😅
@@tbobtrasman4875 😎😋
@electricianu - I have an outdoor outlet that doesn’t have the GFI buttons but stopped working. I don’t see a tripped circuit and I can’t find a tripped GFI anywhere. Is there any way to solve?
thanks brother for your help 👍👍👍
Is the red test switch suppose to be on or off?
That is a live panel!!! Where is your FR gear for protection from a possible arc-flash arc-blast???
Can you replace the breaker with higher amp?
It’s amperage on the load side that sets the fault..or a direct short…..and the type of breaker utilized..high resistance circuits, heating in general cycle typically, so loads are uncommonly continuous…motor starts won’t normally trip breakers even though it significantly higher than the breakers rating..but heavy continuous loads on motors will tax that circuit till it faults..and a hot breaker after a fault will trip a bit quicker if the fault is repeated..same voltages just higher amperage’s.
What if I put a higher amperage breaker? Do I need to upgrade the wire/ romex?
3 phase panel in your shop... Nice!
Note, continuous load.....3 hours or more (80% max load on a circuit)
20amp =16amp max , 15amp = 12amp max
its 125% … so if your pulling 16A ,after 3 hours it will be at 20A
It would be remiss not to mention weak breakers which will open even before the rated current and need to be replaced. Of course there is also the case of derating CB current capacity under high ambient temperature conditions.
Thank you so much
you are great teacher . thank you for sharing your knowledge 👌 🙏 🫶 👏
It can also trip if there is a bad spot in the wire or if the breaker bad and weak ! There are several other things that can cause this problem . Best thing to do is call an electrician so you don't make things worse or hurt yourself .
Dustin,You should make some troubleshooting videos
My main keeps tripping mostly when ac is on but it has triped when the ac is off as well. Any idea how to trouble shoot? 100 amp main. Single family older home
It also does the same thing when I touch the black wire with the white one.
The ole trusty dusty circuit finder
Lol. Do a little welding while you are at it.
Red and black is more fun you amateur
😳
Look for any corrosion too while in there right?
Explained it perfectly 👌👌👌
On where can i buy this tool pls pls..
I remember reading somewhere that every time a breaker trips it's trip rating degrades. So the more it trips the less current it takes to trip it again.
Uh, actually a sustained load of 16 amps would also trip it. You are supposed to size the wire at 80% of the total load of the circuit. Unless, I have forgotten something. Except for motor loads which should be sized at 125% to accommodate the inrush current.
So who's tool box did you breach? What happened to "If it ain't Klein it ain't mine?"
Maybe this video is just a Fluke.
J/K
Maybe you have, but you should do a thorough video on tools. I am one of those guys you guys roll your eyes at (home inspector). But I am a geek and love tools.
My Klein meter has such thick arms for amp reading I can rarely use it for that purpose (beyond my scope to do so, but I still do). But I like that forked ammeter, and I will be getting one. I like fluke, pricey but good. I have a few Klein products too.
This video still doesn't answer the nuiscance tripping of AFCI or combination breakers that must have been designed by a recently divorced female engineer. I.E. finicky and only now wants what she wants.
My breaker to the microwave tripped while I was gone. No one was using electricity besides the electronic devices being on standby mode. Then again the breaker to the laundry room tripped today. I was using the washer and nothing else. Is something wrong with my electricity? This is a new construction home I just moved in.
Good explanation
We’ll explained you are the greatest bro 😎 I appreciate the knowledge
If you have one of those "modern" breakers with the light on them - they have something called arc protection. They trip for no reason. Replace them with a real old fashioned one and it will work better.
The 60 amp breaker for my EV charging keeps tripping, even when not in use. No idea why. Could the actual unit be causing a trip (again, even when not charging it trips)?
They have 2 main breakers, the main breaker and sub,main breaker, why the main breaker tripped instead of a sub breaker?
Awesome video..one thing .. heaters consume electricity by converting to BTUs
On going problem. Circuit breaker for a hall, bathroom, bedroom keeps tripping. Replaced. Trips when everything is off and when everything is unplugged, no load. The breaker may be on for 20 min, 5 hrs, 6 days. When trips sometimes the lights of hall/bathroom stay on, most of the time go off. The apartment adjacent that shares a wall was flooded - may have damaged the old 1960's wiring. A certified electrician came, tested all sockets/switches, insulated the sockets and next day the breaker tripped again. ?????
Wow so a breaker trips when the load is greater than the rating. I never would have guessed.
Also the floor is made of floor, just so you know!🤣
Is water wet? Ask a philosopher
I'm on here because I'm brand new to this stuff. That was new information for me.
@@1193bobmcc you seriously didn't know that say a 20 amp breaker breaks when the current is above 20 amps? That's why there is a fuse or breaker. And I am not sure what the point of the amp meter is here. You are not ever going to see more than what the breaker is rated for because if it's more than the breaker will trip and you'll measure 0. More important, if the breaker keeps tripping, don't keep resetting messing with it. If you really don't know what this stuff is, do not open the panel. You will kill yourself or set the house on fire.
@@Jim-tv2tk Go lookup trip curves for your breakers, you can have 100s or 1000s of seconds before a breaker trips on a slight overcurrent condition.
If a breaker is overloaded, how can you disperse the load? Found out my living room and kitchen are on the same breaker. 🙄
Where in the country do homes have 3 phase panels
Thanks so much 🎉
can i swap a 20 amp breaker for a 30 ? i use space heaters and that’s the problem i have
The reason is my house is crap. The builder put the outlets in all three bathrooms and the only outdoor outlet together on a single 20 Amp breaker. So yeah, two hair dryers, or almost anything and that thing pops.
I know a decent amount of electrical tools and things but one thing puzzles me. As im not an electrician yet and am working on it after highschool and such. My breaker for my sink disposal is tripping when not in use. I think maybe bad breaker but im not sure
Maybe there should be more circuits where more loads can be anticipated. Extra circuits for things like deep freezes, heaters, heavy appliances.
Please explain arcfault breaker nuisance tripping!
This is the #1 reason for trips at my house. Storms will futz them off, and they go off on their own. I never get an over current trip.
@jlentztube I know im a service technician I deal with calls like you have everyday
What is my house breakers problems , we sitting on chairs in the day one time hood breaker tripped , we reseted it tomorrow family room breaker tripped every time one new place , i m confuse , do you know what does it reason?
Great video, just think about changing your wording. At the end, the heating appliances draw current, not generate.
How about a defective breaker had a new panel installed kitchen frig and countertop microwave plugged on the same circuit started tripping now and then same electrical load as before old panel replacement so I open the panel turned off breaker and switch it with a another 20 amp breaker that was not being used; no more triping of breaker to frig and microwave any more. My theory is it may have been acting like a 15 amp or less breaker who nows maybe internally it was a 15amp even though the breaker said it,s A 20 amp.
“Generates” electricity? I’d like a heater or appliance that “generates” electricity. Where can I find one?