Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Breakers tripping
View Single Post
 
Old 03-01-2013, 07:12 AM
2 Oldcrabs 2 Oldcrabs is offline
Veteran member
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 546
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
Default NEC code changed in 2008

The "ARC" breakers are designed to trip with any arcing. If you remember the old drill motors or saws you could see a little "blue arc" where the the brushes meet the armature. Some vacuum's do the same thing. This will cause the ARC beakers to trip. Another problem is "Back Stabbing" of outlets on 15 amp circuits ( It is legal to do). They just push the wires in the back of outlets instead of wrapping the connection around the screws. I tested voltatage at a 15A outlet to be 123volts, plug an Iron in and the voltage dropped to 114 volts. That is more than a 5%. Plug the Iron in a 20amp circuit and the the voltage drop is 2 volts. Some the the voltage drop on 15 amp circuit is the smaller wire allowed. IMHO "Back Stabbing" of outlets should be outlawed. It is a terrible connection and can lead to arcing in the outlet. I will be changing all of them in my home in the near future. One thing you can do is buy a $4 single surge suppressor from Home Depot and move it around where you want to plug a motor into.