How do I stop tripping the circuit breaker.

[lilhasselhoffer]

1) Circuit breakers replaced fuse boxes (in homes) in the late 70's and early 80's. You won't see a modern house with a fuse box.

2) Replacing a breaker is easy. As others have said, turn off the largest breaker (main line for the house). Wait for several minutes until any remaining charges have leaked to ground. Then pull old breaker, insert new breaker, turn system back on and test circuit.

3) What you are describing is transient surges in the system. The PSU draws a large load initially to charge capacitors. Once charged these capacitors take almost nothing to maintain. The initial surge is tripping the system. Cheapest solution is outlet (check to see if it is wired properly), breaker, electrician.

4) Label your circuit breaker box when you replace the circuit breaker. What I mean is to reactivate the breakers one at a time, and map where the power comes back on. This will help you determine which outlets belong to which breaker. I've seen more than one bass ackwards wiring job where a bathroom and bedroom were on the same breaker. The regs. might say one thing, but the inspectors generally have that good old boys network with local wiring firms. I wish this were an exageration...

5) Faulty wiring is generally a problem on older houses. That would be the most expensive, and last, place to look for a problem.

 

[MilkyWay]

Yeah i guess people over here just still call them fuse boxes, after a bit of searching what people here call a fuse box is just a circuit breaker.

 

[Kreij]

Not exactly Keiran. A fuse box (which contains 1 or more fuses) and a breaker box (which contains one or more circuit breakers) are the same thing.
The only difference being that one contains fuses and the other circuit breakers. Circuit breakers replaced fuses in homes for obvious safety reasons.
At least that is the terminology in the US.

It is VERY common in US households to have multiple rooms fed by a single circuit. Remember that on a 15A/120V circuit you only get ~1800 watts and then *click* darkness.

 

[Darkleoco]

1) Circuit breakers replaced fuse boxes (in homes) in the late 70's and early 80's. You won't see a modern house with a fuse box.

2) Replacing a breaker is easy. As others have said, turn off the largest breaker (main line for the house). Wait for several minutes until any remaining charges have leaked to ground. Then pull old breaker, insert new breaker, turn system back on and test circuit.

3) What you are describing is transient surges in the system. The PSU draws a large load initially to charge capacitors. Once charged these capacitors take almost nothing to maintain. The initial surge is tripping the system. Cheapest solution is outlet (check to see if it is wired properly), breaker, electrician.

4) Label your circuit breaker box when you replace the circuit breaker. What I mean is to reactivate the breakers one at a time, and map where the power comes back on. This will help you determine which outlets belong to which breaker. I've seen more than one bass ackwards wiring job where a bathroom and bedroom were on the same breaker. The regs. might say one thing, but the inspectors generally have that good old boys network with local wiring firms. I wish this were an exageration...

5) Faulty wiring is generally a problem on older houses. That would be the most expensive, and last, place to look for a problem.

The breakers are already mapped to what area of the house they control, and hopefully I won't have to worry about wiring in a house built less than 9 years ago.

 

[mastrdrver]

I haven't tried moving it yet since rolling my case down the hall would be a bit agravating but I might do it later, the breaker as a whole is 200 amps and this room with the hallway (just two lights that are off their) is only 15 amps.

Uhhh, 200 amps? Doesn't sound right for a room.

 

[cdawall]

if the house was built to code then its not going to be wiring. seeing how it was built in 04-05 it should be otherwise the contractor that built it could be sitting on a huge lawsuit. more than likely the breaker is going bad. it takes all of half an hour to change one and they are cheap. when mine was doing this i went ahead and moved from a 20 to a 25A C/B that's not super recommended however the wiring and everything was all checked before hand and should be just fine.

 

[Darkleoco]

Uhhh, 200 amps? Doesn't sound right for a room.

Sorry to seem rude but I don't think you read that clearly.

 

[Kreij]

@Mastr : 200 Amps is the total sevice to the home. Very common in US.
My garage has 200A service, or house has 100A service (I think).

Oops, nope both house and garage have seperate 200A services lines.

 

[Darkleoco]

if the house was built to code then its not going to be wiring. seeing how it was built in 04-05 it should be otherwise the contractor that built it could be sitting on a huge lawsuit. more than likely the breaker is going bad. it takes all of half an hour to change one and they are cheap. when mine was doing this i went ahead and moved from a 20 to a 25A C/B that's not super recommended however the wiring and everything was all checked before hand and should be just fine.

After building my computer spending 15-30 $ for a new breaker isn't really anything but I do think I will just keep the standard 15 amp breaker since hopefully I won't break 1800w even with a 1200w psu on my computer.

 

[Kreij]

Definitely try the breaker first. Some breakers last for decades, others fail in a short time ... just like most electrical/electronic things.

If that does not work you can see how much current is being drawn through the circuit when your computer is off by getting your hands on an amp meter that just clips over the wires coming from the breaker. Easy to do ... nothing scary.

 

[MilkyWay]

Not exactly Keiran. A fuse box (which contains 1 or more fuses) and a breaker box (which contains one or more circuit breakers) are the same thing.
The only difference being that one contains fuses and the other circuit breakers. Circuit breakers replaced fuses in homes for obvious safety reasons.
At least that is the terminology in the US.

It is VERY common in US households to have multiple rooms fed by a single circuit. Remember that on a 15A/120V circuit you only get ~1800 watts and then *click* darkness.

I had an old fashioned fuse box and when i moved in here that was one of the first things recommended by an old electrician friend to change. So now it is a new fangled white box which i am assuming is a circuit breaker because the fuses trip they dont blow they have switches on them. Most if not all houses in the UK are like this. I think people are calling circuit breakers fuses much like how someone calls mass weight or

I dont have individual rooms allocated its more like spare, lights, lights, cooker, sockets, sockets, ring circuit first floor, 100A Mains switch, not in a particular order.

Sorry for hijacking the thread

 

[Arctucas]

You could start replacing items, or you could try some troubleshooting first...

 

[Wile E]

You could start replacing items, or you could try some troubleshooting first...

The tools he would need to troubleshoot are more expensive than just replacing the breaker in the first place.

 

[Kreij]

@Kieran
The "new fangled" white box is a breaker box (many times called a fuse box as it has been used for some many years prior to the transition to circuit breakers). The switches in it are circuit breakers.

@Arctucas : I would not recommend that someone who has no, or limited, knowledge of electrical circuitry try to troubleshoot their home. Replacing a breaker is a simple thing.
If ground fault circuits or breakers were wired into the home wrong it's not something you want to screw with if you have no idea how they are supposed to be wired or what to do if they are wired incorrectly.

 

[Arctucas]

The tools he would need to troubleshoot are more expensive than just replacing the breaker in the first place.

Not necessarily.

 

[cdawall]

You could start replacing items, or you could try some troubleshooting first...

Ok cool lets troubleshoot it then

C/B pops on PC start up (high initial load while charging caps etc.) does not pop under any other normal situation sounds like the C/B is bad.

 

[Arctucas]

@Darklecco,

I am a certified electrician, and have been doing electrical work of of one kind or another since the mid-80s.

I will try to help you, if you wish.

 

[Kreij]

Ok cool lets troubleshoot it then

C/B pops on PC start up (high initial load while charging caps etc.) does not pop under any other normal situation sounds like the C/B is bad.

Or the spike current draw on start-up is overloading a good C/B. In which case he needs to remove load from the circuit somehwere.

Either way, these are the two things you check first.

@Darklecco,

I am a certified electrician, and have been doing electrical work of of one kind or another since the mid-80s.

I will try to help you, if you wish.

Good deal! We've been just giving him simple advice on things to check.
If you have troubleshooting info for him that you think he can do easily and safely then by all means post it up !

 

[Wile E]

Not necessarily.

The breaker is less than $10. A cheapo DMM from walmart is $15.

Replacing the breaker is the better option for him, as opposed to buying diagnosis tools. If the breaker does not fix it, then you worry about further diagnosis. Stop looking at it like an electrician trying to make a living, and look at it like a home owner trying to save a few bucks.

 

[Arctucas]

The breaker is less than $10. A cheapo DMM from walmart is $15.

Replacing the breaker is the better option for him, as opposed to buying diagnosis tools. If the breaker does not fix it, then you worry about further diagnosis. Stop looking at it like an electrician trying to make a living, and look at it like a home owner trying to save a few bucks.

Fine, I freely offer my help, and I get grief...

@Darklecco,

Good luck with you problem.

 

[Wile E]

I'm not giving grief, just saying what's the cheapest option. If you do have a cheaper option, let us hear it.

 

[Kreij]

Fine, I freely offer my help, and I get grief...

Come on man, you know how TPU is ... post up some advice.
I'm always interested in hearing and learning from someone with knowledge and experience.

 

[Darkleoco]

Fine, I freely offer my help, and I get grief...

@Darklecco,

Good luck with you problem.

If you have any advice I would be glad to hear it, need something to do after I just failed at fixing my old PS3 :/

 

[Derek12]

I would look at the computer PSU too. May have some weird malfunctioning causing overload. I had similar issues with an old CRT TV which sometimes turning it on caused the breaker to kick off but in some case worked fine without any problems, but on standby was always OK. The problem was the TV and not the wiring, breaker.

 

[Darkleoco]

I would look at the computer PSU too. May have some weird malfunctioning causing overload. I had similar issues with an old CRT TV which sometimes turning it on caused the breaker to kick off but in some case worked fine without any problems, but on standby was always OK. The problem was the TV and not the wiring, breaker.

It's a brand new PSU so I doubt that would be the problem especially since it does fine once it is on and stays on with no issue for 12+ hours, I'm probably just going to do a Home Depot run sometime this week for a new breaker and if that doesn't work just call an electrician maybe.