breaker tripping
#1
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breaker tripping
Hello, new to this type of thing so bear with me. House only 3yrs old,AFCI 20 amp breaker keeps tripping. The weird thing is it only does it at night between 12am and 1am. all that's plugged in is an alarm clock, fan, tv which is off and a computer with a power strip with plugs in it, my wife is here during day and runs fan to sleep but it don't trip. I run fan at night and it trips. Again juststarted this and wiring is new. thanks
#2
Welcome to the forums!
If you're comfortable working inside your panel, you can uncover the breakers, turn off that breaker and another AFCI breaker on the same leg the one either 2 spaces above or two spaces below the one that's giving you a problem, and swapping the hot wires connected to the two breakers. Recover the panel, cut both breakers on, and see what happens.
If the problem stays on the same breaker, replace the breaker. If it moves with the rewiring, troubleshoot the receptacles on that circuit. If the problem goes away, either move the wires back where they were or leave them in the new positions and change the panel index to reflect the change.
If you're not comfortable working inside a live panel, turn the main breaker off before uncovering the breakers. Keep your hands and tools away from the lugs where the incoming power is terminated to the main breaker. Those will still be energized.
If you don't like the idea of doing this yourself, call the most experienced residential electrician you can find.
If you're comfortable working inside your panel, you can uncover the breakers, turn off that breaker and another AFCI breaker on the same leg the one either 2 spaces above or two spaces below the one that's giving you a problem, and swapping the hot wires connected to the two breakers. Recover the panel, cut both breakers on, and see what happens.
If the problem stays on the same breaker, replace the breaker. If it moves with the rewiring, troubleshoot the receptacles on that circuit. If the problem goes away, either move the wires back where they were or leave them in the new positions and change the panel index to reflect the change.
If you're not comfortable working inside a live panel, turn the main breaker off before uncovering the breakers. Keep your hands and tools away from the lugs where the incoming power is terminated to the main breaker. Those will still be energized.
If you don't like the idea of doing this yourself, call the most experienced residential electrician you can find.
#5
Tech note: If anyone wants to test whether there's a problem with an AFCI breaker, they need to move both the hot wire and the neutral wire to a different AFCI breaker. The neutral for the circuit must remain paired with the hot.