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Featured Replies

In the last few days I’ve had as many as five breakers tripping all over the house at different times.

 

Started in the living room a few months ago where I had an old UPS. Replaced the UPS and it went away. Then it started happening a couple days in my home office where I have two other UPSes, but my kitchen (on a different breaker) tripped at the same time. Replaced that UPS and it stopped for about a day. Then last night my wife started the dishwasher (on its own breaker) and the office tripped again. While trying to reset the office breaker my living room (on a different breaker) and my son’s bedroom (another different breaker) tripped. I ran an extension cord for the new office UPS into the hallway (on a different breaker) and all was well. This morning my son turned on the laundry room light (yet another different breaker) and both the hallway and office tripped.

 

I’m calling an electrician tomorrow but wondering what I’m up against. These are APC and CyberPower UPSes so they are major name brands. All of the breakers in question have built in GFCI protection so I wonder if it has something to do with that tripping falsely. But I don’t know why other breakers besides those with UPSes would trip unless there is some kind of serious problem afoot.

 

Thoughts?

  • Author

BTW, should add that we’ve been in the house for 5.5 years with the same UPS arrangement with no problems.

Just now, wherzwaldo said:

BTW, should add that we’ve been in the house for 5.5 years with the same UPS arrangement with no problems.

How old is the panel board service ?  You may have (a) breaker(s) going bad.

  • Author
How old is the panel board service ?  You may have (a) breaker(s) going bad.


6.5 years - house was new construction. Can one bad breaker cause others to trip?
25 minutes ago, wherzwaldo said:

 


6.5 years - house was new construction. Can one bad breaker cause others to trip?

 

I doubt it, We had an issue like yours, but it was related to one breaker.   I'd be surprised if you had several go out at once unless maybe they were defective ?? Are a bunch of GFI's connected ?  That could be a culprit, and then you have to figure out where they are, and what they control.

The other major issue we had was our main line got zapped by a lighting strike, down thru a tree ,and into our irrigation lines. Half the houses' electrical shut down untill they repaired the damaged main service wire in the ground (they're large gauge aluminum BTW).

 

I'm damned sure no electrician BTW.

  • Author
Do your trees lean at all?

Is this a serious question or related to the ghosts?
3 minutes ago, wherzwaldo said:


Is this a serious question or related to the ghosts?

Either way get out of the House brah' !!!!!

  • Author
I doubt it, We had an issue like yours, but it was related to one breaker.   I'd be surprised if you had several go out at once unless maybe they were defective ?? Are a bunch of GFI's connected ?  That could be a culprit, and then you have to figure out where they are, and what they control.
The other major issue we had was our main line got zapped by a lighting strike, down thru a tree ,and into our irrigation lines. Half the houses' electrical shut down untill they repaired the damaged main service wire in the ground (they're large gauge aluminum BTW).
 
I'm damned sure no electrician BTW.

The GFCI is on the breakers themselves in the box. Haven’t had any GFCI outlets trip yet, nor have I had any non-GFCI breakers trip (my box has a mix of GFCI and non-GFCI).

Also, just now... walked into the office, moved my mouse to wake up my monitors, office breaker trips.

Is it breakers on both sides of the breaker box that are tripping or just one side?

1 hour ago, wherzwaldo said:

 

Thoughts?

 

Is son old enough to have a few dozen grow lights running in a hidden part of the house?

Totally talkin out of my ass but strong winds blowing trees around the power lines to your house

I'm a carpenter by trade, I'm not going to tell you the exact nature.of the problem, only to say your breaker cant handle the load. Try unplugging things and see how it works, the electrician can add a few more circuit breakers to lighten the.load.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Dewey is right.

Meanwhile, there's a minimalist answer that is fairly easy: cook over an open flame, and shoot your television. If you don't plug in, it won't trip any breakers.

  • Author
Is it breakers on both sides of the breaker box that are tripping or just one side?

Both sides.
  • Author
I'm a carpenter by trade, I'm not going to tell you the exact nature.of the problem, only to say your breaker cant handle the load. Try unplugging things and see how it works, the electrician can add a few more circuit breakers to lighten the.load.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk



When the office kept tripping immediately upon reset, I went through and unplugged or turned off everything, then started plugging stuff back in until it tripped. Problem is, I’ve done that like three times now with leaving stuff unplugged and it keeps tripping.

Yo shit is loose. Was the house built on an old Indian burial ground by chance?

Sounds like you've got a hole in the electron filter or one of the bypass valves.

Any abandoned houses nearby that you don't think have people in them, but maybe do? And extension cords leading from your house to theirs?


Both sides.

I would call an electrician and have them come out and check the breaker box. I probably would also call the power company and ask them to check the meter and incoming power.

I’d call the power company and have them check the stuff coming into the meter. I think they do that for free.

I think you’ve probably got loose stuff in the breaker box.

  • Author
1 hour ago, Jkwellborn said:

I think you’ve probably got loose stuff in the breaker box.

Given what I've found when replacing a few light switches in the house, this would not surprise me in the slightest.

On 4/15/2018 at 11:32 AM, wherzwaldo said:

 


6.5 years - house was new construction. Can one bad breaker cause others to trip?

 

Was your house built with the chinese drywall that offgasses and oxidizes and corrodes up copper?  Might be something to check out.

Sounds like the flux capacitor is arcing. Is it ball wired aluminum to copper?

Switch to FedEx.  UPS guy probably tripping your wife's breakers.  

Op’s wife has a gentleman caller. Op comes home. Caller or wife start flipping breakers to distract op. Op thinks the house is haunted.

  • Author

Breakers tripped every day Friday thru Monday, then nothing yesterday.  Electrician came out today and didn't find a damn thing wrong.  Oh well.

Did electrician pull the breakers off and check panel bus bar? I’ve seen a couple panels where bus bar overheated for some reason and damged the breakers. Once the breakers heat too much, the contact point gets loose and problem slowly gets worse. I suspect you need a new panel.

If you have a main to turn off power to the panel, it is very easy to pull the breakers off and inspect yourself. Don’t attempt if you don’t know how to kill power to your panel.

  • Author

No trips Tuesday thru Thursday, then the office tripped again last night when I turned off the laundry room light.  This morning I decided to check a switch box that the electrician hadn't checked and found a loose neutral wire behind the switches.  Loose neutrals cause arcs, and this is where I correct myself from earlier and say that I have arc fault (AFCI) breakers, not GFCI breakers.  And in my research online, if neutrals of multiple circuits are bundled together too tightly in or near the panel (which may be the case), a trip on one AFCI can cause another AFCI to trip.  Crossing my fingers.

On 4/18/2018 at 6:25 PM, wherzwaldo said:

Breakers tripped every day Friday thru Monday, then nothing yesterday.  Electrician came out today and didn't find a damn thing wrong.  Oh well.

Was that a real electrician? Or like a Sears electrician?

  • Author

An epilogue... fixing the loose neutral didn't fix the problem.  On Sunday I replaced the two breakers that tripped the most and also replaced the switches in the laundry room.  No trips since then.

Serious question. Did the electrician make sure everything in the box was tight like it was supposed to be? I figured there was a loose neutral or ground there.

  • Author
1 hour ago, Jkwellborn said:

Serious question. Did the electrician make sure everything in the box was tight like it was supposed to be? I figured there was a loose neutral or ground there.

He checked the switches but not the connections behind them.

hopefully he didn't charge you to open the breaker box door, grunt and say it "looks ok to me"

 

He checked the switches but not the connections behind them.

He checked the breakers and not the grounds or neutrals? That was what I meant.
  • Author

He checked the breakers and not the grounds or neutrals? That was what I meant.

Sorry, he checked everything in the breaker box and said it was all fine as far as he could tell. The loose neutral he didn’t find was behind a bathroom light switch.

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