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breaker response time

Because it is an RCD. (30ma GFCI for you Americans) Fix your water infiltration problem on the outside circuit.

Reply to
gfretwell
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This.

But just for completeness, breakers go open for three reasons that I know of, probably more.

You turn them off. They can stand a lot of this. Some are rated to be used this way, but even nonrated ones can do a lot of cycles.

They overload slightly. They can do a lot of these cycles too, but not nearly as many before getting too sensitive or failing. I think it's a factor of 10.

They see a dead short. This is bad. They're only rated to do that twice, and sometimes once is enough. That's okay, they did the job and kept your house from burning down, but now you need a new one.

Rainy weather is probably an overload rather than a dead short. Who knows?

Reply to
TimR

Fine line between a heavy overload and a dead short. If the main is tripping and the branch is not, you can be pretty sure it is NOT a dead short on one of the branch circuits - - - -

Reply to
clare

I did ask an electrician about the breaker tripping problem. He said casually that's due to moisture. No need to fix. Just live with it. Since those breakers don't seem to control anything important (the only thing I notice is garden lights not working), I just live with the problem.

Reply to
Lenny Jacobs

There is a safety issue - disconnect the circuits from the breakers and rest easy.

Reply to
clare

I flipped the offending breakers to turn them off until dry season comes. Then, I turn them on. The only difference I notice is the garden lights.

Reply to
Lenny Jacobs

I flipped all sub breakers down and flipped them one by one to locate the offending breaker. Once I found the offending breaker, I left it down and everything would be fine. Well, except that particular circuit that was turned off.

Sorry for the confusion. I had not known the system was this complex before I checked it. There are two panes. One contains a main 75A breaker with four 63 A sub-main breakers. Before, I had been saying "main breaker". It turned out to be a 63A sub-main breaker.

There is another panel containing about 50 breakers (actually, this panel has two chambers, one containing 50 or so breakers, the other empty). There are no more panels.

I would think main breakers would have a slightly longer response time so to give time to sub breakers to trip.

Thailand.

Reply to
Lenny Jacobs

Is this the same as flipping the breaker to turn of the circuit?

Reply to
Lenny Jacobs

You may have just pinpointed the problem. Outdoor wiring and fixtures are exposed to the elements and there may be a bad connection someplace. Moisture from rain or condensation may be just enough to make a short.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

If you are really in Europe, that is an RCD and is tripping because of a ground fault, not an overload. You have to fix the water intrusion problem. Once you isolate the bad circuit, open the outside boxes and figure out which one has water in it.

Reply to
gfretwell

Removing the wire from the breaker. No more power to the line.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Good assumption. But in my case, when I turned off all breakers and flipped them one by one to locate the offending breaker, I always found one breaker (different ones on different occasions, a total of four breakers) that, when flipped, would trip the sub-main breaker.

Also, as I stated in another post, I have a total of 10 lights, three refrigerators, a water heater, and some small gadgets such as TV, DVD player, etc. There is no way they would overload a 63A, 220 V breaker.

Reply to
Lenny Jacobs

No. They are regular breakers. GFCI breakers have a test button. Mine don't.

Reply to
Lenny Jacobs

Sorry that I did not explain it clearly. To me, no matter what system it is, it should always be the sub-breakers that trip first, not the main breaker. I don't know why one would design a system in which the main breaker would trip first. It seems to me that design defeats the purpose of individual breakers. When a sub-breaker is overloaded and the whole house loses power? That just doesn't make sense to me.

In my case, when a sub-main breaker is tripped (and I'm sure it is not due to overload. Three refrigerators, a ceiling fan, 10 lights, a water heater cannot overload a 63A breaker), I can always trace to one single offending sub-breaker. So, my question is why a sub-main breaker trips first, not the sub-breaker? The sub-main breaker has a faster response time than the sub-breaker?

Reply to
Lenny Jacobs

No - pull the wires so they CAN NOT be energized. There is a safety fault on those circuits - don't take a chance on killing someone.

Reply to
clare

What is the rating of the branch circuit breakers?

Reply to
clare

Are you sure your main is not an RCD? Is there a reset button? (The RCDs I have seen don't have a test button) You say 63a and that immediately says this is not the US because we do not have 63a breakers here. I thought most countries with 220v used RCDs.

New Zealand

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Reply to
gfretwell

In an earlier post you said that the only difference you see when the offending breaker is off are the garden lights. Now you say that it it is "different ones on different occasions, a total of four breakers".

Does that mean that you have 4 breakers for the garden lights and that any (and only) one of them might be the offending one at any given time?

10 lights on 4 different circuits and the problems move from circuit to circuit?

If so, then that means that only 1 of the 4 circuits is getting wet at a time, which is really strange. It also means that all 4 circuits have some type of moisture issue, which is also kind of strange - unless the fixtures are crappy and/or the person who did the original wiring screwed up all 4 circuits.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Gfre has brought up a few times now that you may have a main breaker that d oesn't just trip on overload, but one that also trips if there is even a ti ny ground fault. A ground fault is current flowing to ground instead of con fined to the conductors. In the USA they are called GFCI breakers. Gfre s ays in Europe they are called RCD. If that's the case, then a current of j ust 30ma can trip it and you can get that from wet connections, outlets, et c. It's very common. Does that main breaker have anything that makes it l ook different? Markings? A test button?

Reply to
trader_4

Since garden lights are not working, one of the four must be responsible for them. I have no clue what the other three breakers are for.

Reply to
Lenny Jacobs

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