200Amp main breaker flipped and is hot
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200Amp main breaker flipped and is hot
a little while ago our main house breaker flipped. It’s a 200Amp. We have only had one problem and that was during the snow this year. My bro Dad and husband re routed the house through a 110 outlet allowing my generator to run the 110’s for heat. The first attempt literally blew 10 bulbs at one time on one side of my house. Not good I know. Since then we haven’t had any problems until tonight the main flipped and the left side of it was hot to the touch and to me that side on the handle looks discolored as does the handle u flip on my furnace and stove breakers. The only new anything is an old freezer on my porch that is plugged into an outside receptical that has its own trip the situation when it happened was dryer was running and I was actually running bath water. Two TVs goin ans a few lights that’s it. Any ideas or advice as to what would cause this to happen all of a sudden? Also the house and breaker box all is only 4 yrs old
Last edited by Msmorgan; 05-29-18 at 08:12 PM. Reason: Age of breaker box
#2
I would have the panel checked for a loose connection between the breaker and the bus. Fixing this may require the power company to kill the power. I would recommend a professional be called to evaluate the issue. We're you hearing and arcing or sizzle noise from the panel?
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I'm going to second PCBoss here: A professional would be an excellent idea. There are some relatively simple possibilities, but there are also some very bad ones.
"My bro Dad and husband re routed the house through a 110 outlet allowing my generator to run the 110’s for heat."
My guess would be that during the generator event -- it sounds like you backfed the system through a receptacle, maybe? It's possible that things in the house might have pulled too much current and damaged the wires. Heaters draw a lot of current, and heater circuits are usually fed with larger wires than the 110 receptacles, so there's a strong possibility of damage to the 110 receptacle circuit wires. It would be a good idea to have an electrician open and inspect the receptacle that you plugged the generator into, and any other receptacles in that circuit, at least.
Damaging a 200 A breaker probably means that something in the house is drawing more than 200 Amps. I would suspect that it is the 110 circuit that the generator was on. An electrician will have tools to confirm this guess. The other possibilities, well, like PCBoss said, you'll need an electrician.
"My bro Dad and husband re routed the house through a 110 outlet allowing my generator to run the 110’s for heat."
My guess would be that during the generator event -- it sounds like you backfed the system through a receptacle, maybe? It's possible that things in the house might have pulled too much current and damaged the wires. Heaters draw a lot of current, and heater circuits are usually fed with larger wires than the 110 receptacles, so there's a strong possibility of damage to the 110 receptacle circuit wires. It would be a good idea to have an electrician open and inspect the receptacle that you plugged the generator into, and any other receptacles in that circuit, at least.
Damaging a 200 A breaker probably means that something in the house is drawing more than 200 Amps. I would suspect that it is the 110 circuit that the generator was on. An electrician will have tools to confirm this guess. The other possibilities, well, like PCBoss said, you'll need an electrician.
#4
Off your original topic but you wrote:
Outlet was 120 not 110 and if they used a suicide cord (male on both ends) and did not have a transfer switch or interlock you could have potentially injured or killed an electrical company worker.
My bro Dad and husband re routed the house through a 110 outlet allowing my generator to run the 110’s for heat.
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Thank you and yes I told them that didn’t sound safe to begin with. And thinking on it the electric co did have to one out about two mo later because for some reason our meter wasn’t reading. I told him then what they had done. Thank you. We have an electrician coming today.