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Blown Breakers

It is not normal for a breaker to trip on a regular basis and if you have one that does that you have a problem that needs to be found and eliminated.

Household circuits, except those going to heavy use appliances like a dryer, range or hot water heater, can handle a sustained total load of about 1,500 watts. If the breaker always trips when you plug in or use a particular appliance you are apparently drawing more than 1,500 watts on that particular circuit.

Use a circuit tester (light, radio or commercial tester) and find all the outlets and/or fixtures that run off that particular circuit and add up the total watts of power they draw. Subtract that total from 1,500 to determine how much more power can be drawn on that circuit without problem. For example, a bedroom circuit may have two 100 watt bedside lamps, a 40 watt clock radio, and a 100 watt electric blanket. You then you have (1,500-340)=1,260 watts available.

Now suppose you buy a electric heater to take the chill off on cold mornings. Heaters, especially on the high settings, often draw almost 1,500 watts by themselves. That will probably be OK because you won't have all the lights on at the same time, the heater itself cycles on and off, etc. However, now plug in your blow dryer!! The blow dryer probably draws 750 watts. If the heater is on at the same time the breaker is going to pop. If the heater is cycled off things will be OK until it comes on.

Thus you can have a situation where the heater is set to a lower setting so it cycles on and off but is not drawing power much of the time. When the hair dryer is turned on during a heater off cycle, everything is fine. However, when the heater turns back on the breaker is going to pop. This can be confusing because everything worked for a while and it may not be obvious what is going on with the changing current demand on the circuit.