Just experienced something that I want to understand. I was using a vacuum cleaner in the living room. It has never tripped the circuit before, and that's because I've always used it during the day when I had no lights/TV turned on(15amp breaker). Decided to vacuum real quick before some friends come over to celebrate NYE. Had the lights on (150w bulb), TV, other electronics and the vacuum. Boom! circuit breaker trips.
Now here is the part I want to understand. The whole house went dead for a split second. Upstairs computer/tv shutdown but the lights stayed on. Downstairs reset too, but most of the light came right back on. Only the living room stayed dead with no power. I looked at my circuit breakers and noticed the "range" breaker wasn't turned ON all the way. It didn't pop to OFF position, it was just not fully engaged into ON position. After I reset it, all the power in the living room was restored.
My question is, why did the breaker trip the power to the whole house? And why did the breaker not kick into OFF position when it tripped?
Now here is the part I want to understand. The whole house went dead for a split second. Upstairs computer/tv shutdown but the lights stayed on. Downstairs reset too, but most of the light came right back on. Only the living room stayed dead with no power. I looked at my circuit breakers and noticed the "range" breaker wasn't turned ON all the way. It didn't pop to OFF position, it was just not fully engaged into ON position. After I reset it, all the power in the living room was restored.
My question is, why did the breaker trip the power to the whole house? And why did the breaker not kick into OFF position when it tripped?
