Expert: Al Latimer - 10/15/2004

Question
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Followup To
Question -
hello,  let me explain. the other night i had 2 1300 watt heaters on 1 in one room the other in another room.  every thing was fine.  then my husband decided to plug in another 1300 watt heater in our room,by the way we did not need it. the heater was on for about 5 min. then it blew out some of the breakers in my room and the breakers in the bathroom and the breakers on 1 side of my daughter room.he tried replacing the 20 amp with anothe 20 amp, but nothing happened.  so yesterday,he clicked some of the breakers off and on.  when he did that, the lamp that is in my room came on for a second and then went off.

can you please help! oh i also heard a clicking sound when the breakerkicked off in my room. when my husband was trying to click the breaker back on. what else could be the problem. everything else in the house is working fine.  thanks in advance for your help.
Answer -
Kwanda, with three 1300watt heaters on one circuit, you had a total of 32.5 amps current draw.  It all were one 20amp circuit, it's easy to see why the breaker won't hold it.  I suspect that the noise you heard was the vibration in the wires when all that load was applied at the same time.  The only solution is to connect the heaters to seperate circuits.

Al


hello, and thanks for your suggestion.  I have anothe question.  I unplugged all of the heaters from the outlet , i still can not get the breaker to come back on.  i even switched to a 30 amp.  the wires look fine.  what else could be the problem? the 2 1300 watt heaters that were on before my husband plugged in the yhird heater, every thing was fine.  I had used them the night before. but i did switch to a30 amp and nothing happens.  My husband said that when the breakers first originally cut off, he could not tell what breaker it was,because he did not see any of them off.  thanks in advance for your help,

         kwanda

Answer
kwanda, if you're not sure which breaker is the problem breaker, go to the panel and one at a time, turn each breaker off HARD, then back on.  Often the breaker is hard to re-set.  If the problem is still evident, check to see which receptacles are without power.  Pick the one that is located nearest to the breaker.  Inspect the wire connections for looseness or discoloration of the insulation.  It that nets nothing, work your way back toward the breaker to the next receptacle that DOES work and make the same inspection.  If that fails, you may have to call a qualified electrician.  

Incidently, increasing the size of the breaker to 30amps is not a good idea, unless the wire is a number 10 gauge.


Al