ok, yesterday in the morning my dad woke me up saying there was no electricity in half the house. the lights in our bathroom, living room, kitchen and some lights in our basement and also outlets not working. So we went and checked the breaker and it tripped, so we just put in a new one. But a few minutes later it tripped again. so we restarted it, and my dad was leaving to work and tried opening the garage door but it tripped again. we had to manually open the garage door because the breaker kept tripping. so we restarted it a few more times later that afternoon but it kept tripping like every 5 minutes. we tried to unplug everything from outlets but it still keep tripping. But, we have noticed a buzzing in the wall everytime we restart the breaker. the buzzing goes away when the breaker trips. So im asking about your opinion on what this could be? we have a family electrician coming in on sunday. Currently, the breaker is unplugged because were scared it could start a fire or something. half of our outlets and lights are not working, thankfully, we do have power in our bedrooms. so, what do you think this could be??
house breaker keeps tripping??
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You need to call the power company lwhen it started. Not just keep turning the breaker on and off.
The house main breaker tripping, means that there is a problem between the house and the connection to the transformer.
You are lucky that the house did not catch on fire, while ignoring the real reason the Main Breaker keeps tripping.
The "Family" Electrician cannot do anything for this. Call the power company now, not tomorrow, not next week. Now.
From your description of how much fails, it sounds like it may be a problem with one entire phase of the power to the house. Because you don't recognize this I think your best bet by far is to shut it all down until you have a professional look at it. Among other things, your heavier appliances that require both phases to work properly (oven, dryer, etc...) might misbehave or get damaged if if operated with the wrong voltage supplies.
But maybe it's something else. What breaker were you resetting that made all of these things work again? (Don't do that again, btw.) Is there a single breaker you were resetting? Is it a breaker for a subpanel or something? Could all of these things be connected to one breaker?
I would also trust the other guys here when they say call the power company.
it is just one breaker. our house is quite old think it was built in the 1950s. the breakers are the screw in type, they are circular and 15 amp. there are 2 panels the one that keeps tripping is the 4th breaker in the second panel which basically provides power to the upstairs kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom, and also a few rooms in the basement and also the garage. and also the refrigerator, microwave, washer, dryer all work and are on a different breaker.
When you say "second panel," do you mean the second one from the meter, and it draws power through a breaker on the main panel?
So the 15 amp breaker that is blowing is powering all of those rooms on one circuit? Has anything big been plugged in lately? (Laser Printer, A/C, etc...) Has anything new been plugged in lately? (Even a lamp.) Have any light switches been turned on that haven't been used in years? Have any plugs been used that haven't been used in years?
Given that buzzing noise, it sounds like a short circuit. (The hot wire is touching the neutral wire, making a LOT of power go through very quickly). That could be in something plugged in to the circuit, in one of the receptacles or switches, in a junction box, or inside the walls.
Regardless of outcome, btw, I would start thinking about some electrical upgrades if you intend to keep the house for long.
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Sounds like a short somewhere. You may have to open up everything on that circuit to find it. Unplugging everything is a good idea as the problem could be in an appliance. Did you unplug the garage door opener?
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From what I gathered, it is a branch circuit breaker that is having the problem, not the main. It seems as though there is a lot on this circuit though. Maybe it is just severely overloaded. Given the time of year there could be some extra forgotten heaters plugged in somewhere.
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The house main breaker will be tripping from POCO fault. It can only trip from a fault AFTER the breaker not BEFORE the breaker.
This is not a POCO fault.
There is a short in the line after the breaker.
alright i think we found the source of the problem. we disconnected the main garage wire box or whatever its called. the wire goes underground providing power to the garage. we disconnected it and the breaker stopped tripping but we dont have power in the garage. My uncle said we might have to replace the underground wire which is setting off the breaker. we also checked all the garage receptacles which were fine. so it seems like the underground wire was causing the short circuit. know to get it fixed we might have to dig underground and replace the wire or run a new wire. But the good news is we know have power in the house. which is a good thing because the holdiays are coming soon.
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5,468 Posts
You may be able to use
The old power feed to pull
The new cable thru !
If you can it saves digging.
The old power feed to pull
The new cable thru !
If you can it saves digging.
we tried actually pulling it but it didnt work. the wire is very old and it may be wedged in the ground somewhere.we dont know if its hooked up to anything else or inside a tube although a professional electrician is going to take a look at it. it is winter know so we might wait until spring to fix it But i dont know for sure yet. for know we will have to open the garage door manually but its liveable. ill try to update when i get some new information though.
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