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Erick79n

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I have a breaker that keeps popping when we turn on the Christmas lights. I know the lights don’t have much draw however they are on the same circuit as a reef tank which does have a large draw from a 4000gph pump as well as other filters and pumps. I wanted to upgrade the 15 amp to a 20 amp. I need to ensure that all the wires on the circuit are at least 12 gauge is there a tool that will test the load capacity of each wire without trying to trace them as the circuit goes theough 2 rooms and it would be difficult to make sure I have visually inspected each wire. Thank you
 
Welcome to the forum mate.
It sounds like you have a problem with the Christmas tree lights.
Have you tried plugging them into a different circuit and see if that breaker trips?
 
is there a tool that will test the load capacity of each wire

Not easily. You can easily measure the resistance but this only tells you the gauge if you accurately know the length. You can measure that electronically but it involves sophisticated test equipment, so it would be easier to inspect every fixture.

What is the total wattage rating of the lighting setup?
 
... the circuit goes though 2 rooms and it would be difficult to make sure I have visually inspected each wire.
Is this circuit feeding sockets along the way? I.e. would you expect many joints and cable changes? If not then checking at the panel and at the end point should be enough.

If you can't reliably determine its rating, and you already have issues with the breaker tripping, it would be very unwise to simply increase the breaker rating. Ideally you should measure what the circuit load typically is and fix any problems with the lights, etc. That can be very dangerous to attempt as you would be placing a clamp ammeter on the cables in the panel or wherever easily accessed while it is live. Really you ought to get a professional electrician in for that sort of thing as live work (panel open and energised) is potentially very dangerous, not just electric shock but also the risk of arc-flash injuries.

I found an article a couple of years back and it had stats for 2013 in the USA with:
  • 30,000 Arc Flash Incidents per year
  • 7,000 Burn Injuries per year
  • 2,000 Hospitalisations per year
  • 400 Fatalities per year
  • 80% of Electrical Worker fatalities are due to burns, not shock
So you really need to treat things carefully.

If you do have a high load that is tripping the circuit, say the pump motor start-up surge, it might be better to add a dedicated circuit for that than to modify the existing one if you can be sure of the cable section throughout the circuit.
 
A quick search for '4000gph pump' has modest power, say 15A fuse on 24V low-voltage supply, so that would be trivial for a 120V circuit to supply at 15A breaker (motor fuse is 3A equivalent). Really it looks like you have a fault to find.
 

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