unusual problem


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Old 03-09-11, 04:29 PM
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unusual problem

Hi, My neighbor's electric stove causes several of her panel's breakers to trip every time it is turned on, but the breakers that trip are not the stove's breakers. The stove is on its own exclusive circuit which does not trip. How can the stove cause trips on "foreign" circuits? I'm supposing that the breakers, which I haven't yet seen, are of the ground fault type and the problem is caused by a neutral shared among the different circuits. Could that be it, or does anyone have al more likely sounding idea of what might be causing this problem?
 
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Old 03-09-11, 05:29 PM
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What size breaker is the stove on? What size is the main breaker?
 
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Old 03-09-11, 06:06 PM
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The problem is probably the heat from the range breaker combined with the heat from other breakers that causes some to nusiance trip. I wouldn't doubt the panel being loaded with skinnies, too.
 
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Old 03-10-11, 04:53 AM
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Thank you, Ray and Justin, for the replies. I'm not sure of the breaker ampacity nor conformation yet since I haven't seen the house, but I plan to tomorrow and I'd like to be able to fix it right then. I'm told that other electricians have looked at it and assured the owner that the stove is connected correctly to its own breaker, but if that were the case then the other, supposedly unrelated, breakers would not trip. The stove and tripping circuits must be connected somehow, and the most probable connection that I can think of is a shared neutral, so I thought I would temporarily install a replacement conductor for the stove's neutral back to the panel and see if the tripping continued. Any other ideas?
 
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Old 03-10-11, 04:59 AM
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Originally Posted by ray2047
What size breaker is the stove on? What size is the main breaker?
Hi Ray, I'll find out about the breaker sizes, but in the meantime, what are you thinking?
 
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Old 03-10-11, 07:44 AM
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Originally Posted by tdexxx
Hi Ray, I'll find out about the breaker sizes, but in the meantime, what are you thinking?
Not sure if it would cause your symptoms but I was wondering if the smaller branch circuits were triping because there was an over all load that was lowering the house voltage causing an increase in amperage. Very unlikely but just wondering. Check the voltage with everything on just to be sure I'm wrong.
 
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Old 03-10-11, 08:59 AM
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Ray,
I don't understand your thoughts here: "an over all load that was lowering the house voltage causing an increase in amperage."
How would this occur?
TIA,
Bob
 
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Old 03-10-11, 09:03 AM
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Are the breakers that trip standard breakers (on/off switch only) or AFCI/GFCI (has a test button and on/off switch)?

When the stove is on does she notice any lights getting dimmer or more importantly brighter around the house? Flickering?

If you lay the back of your hand on the face of the breakers, does it feel hot/warm? Is there any popping, cracking sounds near the panel, any smells?

It would be extremely unlikely for the range circuit to have neutrals interconnected with any other circuit, and even then that would not trip regular breakers, only AFCI or GFCI.

edit: one more thing, are the other breakers that trip always the same ones or different each time? Are they right next to the stove breaker?
 
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Old 03-10-11, 10:42 AM
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Originally Posted by bob22
Ray,
I don't understand your thoughts here: "an over all load that was lowering the house voltage causing an increase in amperage."
How would this occur?
TIA,
Bob
Not sure I do either. Just covering all the bases.

Totally useless info so you can ignore. Some types of loads will draw the same watts regardless of voltage. Since watts = amps X volts if the watts don't change and the voltage is decreased the amps go up. A very unlikely scenario.
 
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Old 03-11-11, 12:45 PM
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Determine if the range will operate properly on it's own breaker with all others breakers in the panel in the "Off' positon.

Is this a sub-panel , or a Service panel with "split-bus"?.

Good Luck !!
 
 

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