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Member |
Well, I went into the attic and followed Skins advice. Unhooked the center light in the circuit (wrongly I might add as I just disconnected the one light, not the rest of the leg), and could not reproduce the fault. Hooked it back up, and again could not reproduce the fault. Turned on extra stuff that wasn't on before, and couldn't reproduce the fault... The only differences I can see are that it is cooler today than it was before, by about 20 degrees, and the upstairs AC, located in the attic, was running before and not today. That is on a totally different circuit however. The panel is in the basement, climate controlled. I have realized that I've been using the wrong terminology. The breaker is actually an Arc Fault breaker, not a GFCI breaker. GE Model THQL1115AF2. The other night when this started, I swapped it with and identical one from the panel, and had the same problem, leading me to believe the breaker was ok. Today, I cannot replicate it at all. | |||
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Ammoholic |
AFCIs are a different beast all together. They measure the frequency/sin wave of power, when there is a arcing situation or fault they open the circuit. Step one is already covered, swap breaker and see if problem goes away. Loose connections, motor brushes, and faults are most likely to cause them to trip. RF (radio frequency) interference can also screw with how they operate. Not doing HAM or transmitting anything are you? As far as the attic lights, how did you mix up that they were on the same circuit? I thought the triggering event was turning on the attic lights? Did the attic lights turn off when you turned them on? The reason I ask is if you have two neutrals from different circuits tied together it will make one or both trip. This won't happen though until a load is applied to the circuit. When you swapped breakers did you also swap the neutral as well? If not then that by itself would cause one or both to trip once a load was applied. AFCIs are so finicky that it will likely be hard to diagnose over the interwebz.This message has been edited. Last edited by: Skins2881, Jesse Sic Semper Tyrannis | |||
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| Member |
Yeah. Real Men don't read instructions or manuals. Very helpful when you are defusing bombs or working electrical issues. | |||
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| Member |
No HAM radios in the house or near me that I'm aware of. When I switched the breakers, I did switch the neutrals also. As for messing up the lights, they are on the same circuit, but when I took the middle fixture down out of the circuit, I left the wiring hooked up, and since its in parallel, it did not cut off the downstream lights. Not sure what's going on now that it won't do it again. I'm guessing the next step will be pulling all the fixtures/switch and make sure the connections are tight. Then replace the breaker if it happens again? | |||
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| Ammoholic |
Got it, they were 'pig-tailed', meaning spliced with a wire nut and a single black and white going to terminals? Then that leaves two possibilities: 1) Kicked wiring at the fixture box that you moved slightly away from each other. Solution, check for exposed Cu and tape at point wire was striped of outer jacket. 2) You have some other wiring fault, poor connection, or bad appliance/lamp/fixture/electronic device. Solution. Process of elimination You will need to find the load or condition that causes it to trip. Once you do that you should be able to either fix it yourself, or save yourself extra labor/trouble shooting expense from your electrician. Jesse Sic Semper Tyrannis | |||
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| Yew got a spider on yo head  |
Have the old lady fire up the hair dryer! | |||
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