Unexplained breaker tripping

[Unkle79]

First time poster here. My name is Melissa and I’m asking for advice regarding my mom and stepdad’s home. He tried for 4 days to work the problem before I convinced my mom to call an electrician due to fire concerns, who also found nothing wrong. He told us to check appliances one by one to see what’s making the breaker trip, but that doesn’t work because it happens randomly.

A few hours after I went to bed Sunday night my bedroom breaker tripped. I reset it and it was fine the rest of the night.

Monday night it happened about an hour after I went to bed. Again, we reset it and it was fine.

Tuesday night—same thing.

Wednesday evening I turned everything on early and it happened within the hour. We reset it and it happened again within an hour, and the breaker for the adjacent bedroom was also tripped.

Thursday the breakers were off, waiting for the electrician to come yesterday. After he left, the power in the whole house started flickering sporadically for a while, but not going off.

Last night I slept with my ceiling fan off, but the other devices I normally use running. Nothing happened until I woke up this morning and turned the ceiling fan on. It tripped within the hour. I reset it and turned just the ceiling fan on, besides an alarm clock. It’s been on 5 hours.

The other appliances are a fan (which I’ve tested in a different room), a Chilipad mattress cooler (which I swapped all components with a spare on hand and which I used all Thursday night with an extension cord plugged in a different room), and a lamp which is always off. The electrician did say that breaker was pulling 9 amps, which doesn’t make sense for the appliances in use. He didn’t seem too interested in pursuing that angle other than the previously mentioned ruling out of appliances with motors, but we can’t replicate the issue because it only happens when it wants to.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading and I hope it makes sense!

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Brits note that the OP is in the USA.

We don't know whether the tripping is caused by a rogue appliance or a fault in the house wiring such as an intermittent short-circuit, but the fact that it doesn't seem to align with the use of a particular appliance suggests that it is the wiring. You mention that the electrician did not find anything wrong, but do you know what diagnostics he used to reach that conclusion? Did he carry out an insulation test for example? Is it possible that in fact the breaker is tripping due to overload, because it also powers things elsewhere in the house that you would not immediately miss if they went off?

Aside from what appears to be a fault on this circuit, we have two more anomalies; the tripping of the second breaker and the flickering. Is it possible that the second breaker had been knocked to the off position when resetting the first, but had not yet been noticed? Is it likely that the flickering was caused by supply disruptions (do you often get power cuts etc?)

Both the cause of the tripping and that of the overall flickering can indicate that arcing is occurring. It would be wise to find the cause as soon as possible due to the risk of further damage quite apart from the inconvenience.

 

[Megawatt]

First time poster here. My name is Melissa and I’m asking for advice regarding my mom and stepdad’s home. He tried for 4 days to work the problem before I convinced my mom to call an electrician due to fire concerns, who also found nothing wrong. He told us to check appliances one by one to see what’s making the breaker trip, but that doesn’t work because it happens randomly.

A few hours after I went to bed Sunday night my bedroom breaker tripped. I reset it and it was fine the rest of the night.

Monday night it happened about an hour after I went to bed. Again, we reset it and it was fine.

Tuesday night—same thing.

Wednesday evening I turned everything on early and it happened within the hour. We reset it and it happened again within an hour, and the breaker for the adjacent bedroom was also tripped.

Thursday the breakers were off, waiting for the electrician to come yesterday. After he left, the power in the whole house started flickering sporadically for a while, but not going off.

Last night I slept with my ceiling fan off, but the other devices I normally use running. Nothing happened until I woke up this morning and turned the ceiling fan on. It tripped within the hour. I reset it and turned just the ceiling fan on, besides an alarm clock. It’s been on 5 hours.

The other appliances are a fan (which I’ve tested in a different room), a Chilipad mattress cooler (which I swapped all components with a spare on hand and which I used all Thursday night with an extension cord plugged in a different room), and a lamp which is always off. The electrician did say that breaker was pulling 9 amps, which doesn’t make sense for the appliances in use. He didn’t seem too interested in pursuing that angle other than the previously mentioned ruling out of appliances with motors, but we can’t replicate the issue because it only happens when it wants to.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading and I hope it makes sense!

I know that this is a old post but that sounds bizarre. The first thing that the electrician should have done was to replace the breaker. Then see how it goes if he can’t find the problem, 9 amps is nothing to alarmed about but it could also be a fault and I’m assuming that it is the same breaker all the time. Breakers can and will wear out especially if it’s been reset a lot of times