Fuse Problems

Get a ups or something

>>1222259
That won't stop it from constantly tripping. I'd rather not make a trip outside to reset the switch twice a day for the rest of the time I'm living here.

>>1222257
Well, there's your problem. You have breakers, not fuses.

Breakers have an amperage rating. In the USA that is generally 15 amps (1800 watts) although sometimes they use 20 amps. For 220 residential circuits, it can be much, much higher.

>Can I just replace the individual fuse that consistently blows
Very, very, very much no. If you have 15 amp rated wire in your walls and you but a larger breaker on it, it can start a fire. The breaker is there to keep things like your wires for getting overheated. Generally, though, your 1200 watt load should not be tripping your breakers. Have an electrician come by and take a look. Either there is a problem or you might be making an incorrect calculation on your load and it is greater than you think.

>>1222257
>or better yet just fucking duct tape the particular fuse locked into the on position?
sure, if you want to burn your house down and not be entitled to any insurance

>>1222257
>1200 W
1200w at 110v is something like 11ish amps. they aren't 10 amp breakers are they? might explain something!
what kind of breakers, overcurrent, earth leakage, arc?

>Can I just replace the individual fuse that consistently blows with an older model with higher tolerance
you should find different classes for things like motors that allow peaks but older models shouldn't really have different tolerances. breakers even kind of follow the curves that old wire fuses followed. either on purpose or by accident i'm not sure.

locking a breaker on will do absolutely nothing, to be able to override the protection like that would be a huge liability. for you doing it and for the manufacturer allowing it to be done.


can you identify specific appliance or combination of appliances that cause the trip? is it one breaker or all breakers? what kind of breaker.

>>1222262
I've tried various experiments including unplugging everything except my computer and monitors.

With a generous usage of 250 W per monitor (I have two) and an 800 w computer and only peripherals a keyboard and mouse, If I stress test the computer to force it to push 800 W it will still blow.

So I might be underestimating a bit but there were literally no other electronics in that zone of the house operating at that time.

Maybe my state had an idiot legislator push some legislation because some family had a housefire that killed their kids from too much juice

>>1222262
>Either there is a problem or you might be making an incorrect calculation on your load and it is greater than you think.
betcha its something like an electric motor being stalled to the point of exceeding 1800w but op doesnt realize the 1200w rating is nominal not peak

>>1222257
Do the breakers have a little test button? If so they are probably arc fault breakers and yes, they suck. You can switch them for the same size non advisory breaker and not really have anything go wrong. Since they are tripping on a load(you have something plugged in) it probably means that a ground wire (usually bare copper) is touching a neutral wire(white wire). You can take apart the plugs if you're comfortable enough and make sure nothing is touching each other, since sometimes a ground wire will touch the neutral leads(silver screws) of the plug.

>>1222273
Yes they do have a test button, Is that really a sign that they're shit?

>>1222270
Honestly, don't know what amp breakers they are. I didn't have a say in how the house was constructed and didn't bother asking, Maybe I should have.

>>1222270
It seems to be just one breaker in particular. Whenever it trips its just a specific part of the house (1 bedroom and the office) nothing else blows despite the family / living rooms having a lot more electronics and appliances sucking energy

Journeyman here. Welcome to the shitty world of arc fault breakers. The 2011 code made them mandatory on all circuits in the living area of a house save specific exceptions like the frig or microwave.

They cost 10x as much as normal breaks and don't do shit but piss off people and cause me to have to go back to a house after inspection and swap them all out (at the home owners pleading). Not that it matters. The local inspectors know and dont give a single fuck. They've taken them out of their own houses because they trip if you fart by them.

Sweepers trip them, blenders, radio equipment, audio amps, A/C's, basically anything that uses power. GFCI's are a good thing, arc fault's are shit.

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>>1222257
I'd start by checking if they're arc-fault or ground-fault breakers.

Breakers can fail, wear out, etc. They typically "fail safe", meaning they'll wear out and start failing below rated current rather than beyond it.
Breakers can also be replaced fairly easily.
DO NOT replace it with a higher-amp-rated breaker to """""fix""""" the problem.

Pop the panel open, there's usually either a screw or latch on the inside cover. Open that, slide it out. You should now be able to see all the breakers, and the wiring feeding the bus bars and circuits.
>Pic related.

Put one hand in your back pocket and think about what you're doing/touching. (One hand in the back pocket prevents current from flowing across your chest/heart should you fuck up and touch something live.)
Grab the breaker by its plastic parts and tug on it - should pop/hinge out - carefully free it from the bus bar.
Grab a screwdriver and disconnect the wire on the now-loose breaker making sure the wire doesn't spring back into the box and short something out.

Replace that breaker with an equivalent one, and see if that fixes things.

If it's an AFCI/GFCI .... you might have an electrical problem on the circuit. I'd have an electrician come out and look at it. You'll need some tools/troubleshooting/skills that it sounds like you don't have. Not to sound mean, but we're talking house-fire kind of shit you really don't want to be /diy/ing without the right skills/knowledge of what you're dealing with.

>>1222283
I have an old as balls house with two wire in the walls (only grounds are in the kitchen and bathroom). I have heard that I can replace my breakers with GFCI breakers for a slight increase in protection. Do GFCI breakers have the same problems as arc fault breakers?

>>1222283
Thank you, this is the verification I needed. Glad it's not just me but that they're universally hated.

Whoever updated the codes to such a shitty standard need to lose their jobs.

>>1222286
No. GFCI's are solid. They work by measuring the current going out the device and then measure the current returning to it. If the two currents mismatch they trip. Only bad thing about them is they do age and need replaced sometimes (normally decades but sometimes sooner).

Arc faults work similar to GFCI's my measuring outgoing currents. The difference is they use some voodoo to detect what could be 'arcing' and trip. The idea is to catch an arc before it can start a fire. Main problem is that there are lots of things that arc purposefully. Any brushed motor, relay, switch, etc. They're a good idea on paper that any competent engineer would have laughed at.

>>1222293
Would a computer that runs 350 W idle and spikes to 800 W when really taxing the GPU count as an arc?

>>1222293
If my place is newer, can I install GFCI breakers to replace arc fault breakers and still be up to code? I might want to sell in a few years and I don't want to have to replace everything if the inspector gets his nuts in a twist.

>>1222295
Depends on the quality but computer power supplies normally have a shitty power factor and dump horrible harmonics on the line. I could see that messing with an arc fault but then so does a butterfly flapping its wings in China.

>>1222301
Well technically no because any work you do would be under the new code. Personally I'd take them out but keep them to swap back in before selling if you're worried. Swapping a break is a minute thing if you know what you're doing.

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Get breakers with higher trip times, like a D15. I got D10s to use for fucking around with homemade transformers on mains voltage so they would trip before my house's circuit breakers, before I realised that I bought the wrong fucking breakers. It was $30 from china for 12 of them, so I guess it's a good thing I'm not using them.

>>1222285

Hand in the back pocket is so you don't as easily try and grab your other hand when you are being shocked and it contacts and won't let go and instead think long enough to grab something to pull your body away.

Or just don't get shocked by being a moron.

>>1222287
The point of arc faults is so that you don't have a loose connection somewhere in an attic sparking for years and eventually burning a house down, they just also happen to be finicky pieces of shit

>>1222285
Do electricans actually TDR their circuits to look for high resistance joints or something, or do they have to go put shorts on every outlet?

How would you find an actual problem like a high resistance joint/arcing connection?

>>1222257
It's like the blind leading the blind in here.

OP 3 two things could be happening

1) if it's an arc sensing breaker it may be tripping on that

2) residential breakers trip at 80% rating. If it says 15 it's supposed to trip at 12 (with a bit of time)

3) you could just have a bad one out of the box.

Get a clamp meter, use your head and you'll solve this.

>>1222262

We had an issue with our breaker tripping when you used a 750w drill in a 220V 30A breaker and the lazy ass installer kept saying

>HURR it's how those sensitive breakers work

Couldn't find the problem and took out the breaker. Fucking installer tightened the line contact down onto the insulation.

>>1222257

Pull the panel cover off the panel, and check all of the connections to be clean and tight.

You may have to find the Ground Rod outside the building and make sure the installers didn't Butt-Rape you on that part.

It's a 10 foot rod pounded into the ground with a bare copper wire clamped to it.

Sometimes they cheap-fucks will not pound the full length in, and put a couple of feet in, then saw the rod-off, and put some pound marks on the sawed end.

Lots of ways for crappy electrical contractors to fuck-you-over.

>>1222257
Unless the breaker is "switch rated" it will slowly get more sensitive each time it is flipped. Even if they are switch rated, that happens, but just slower.
Once a breaker has popped 5-6 time it's a gonner. Replace that breaker with a new one.
If that pops, well then, you have another issue, eh.

>>1222341
>Do electricans actually TDR
no but you should measure the resistance at each socket to the panel to make sure at least your earth impedance is low enough to trip breakers. you can do this with a special plug so no need to take sockets off the wall.

you check arc faults by looking at it. if its black and burned to all fuck its probably bad. some posh cunts use thermal imaging for speed, poor connections are high z and generate plenty heat.

doubt anyone does tdr outside of data/comms.

>>1222271

stressing testing out the computer sets it off you say. No other electronics... perhaps its your p/s.

>fuse

>>1222345
>residential breakers trip at 80% rating.
who thought this was a good idea?

>>1224209
>who thought this was a good idea?

I'd like to see proof of that. It seems ridiculous.

>>1224209
>>1224216


Household molded case breakers are thermo magnetic. The trip curve starts at 80%.

You can run 80% to 100% but it will trip after some time. This is why you don't provide greater than 80% continuous load on these breakers.

If it was an industrial breaker you get 100%.

You want evidence it's in NEC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Electrical_Code

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>>1224253
>You want evidence it's in NEC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Electrical_Code

Thank you sir.

>>1222257
well either you are putting too much on one circuit, or your breakers are in need of replacement