Does this sound like a bad/weak breaker issue?

The first question is, when you lose power, is it to the whole "place" (house? half a house?) or just to the one circuit that the heavy appliances are on? Can you tell us what the size of the house's supply is? (This will be the Amperage number on the master breaker(s), which may be the one that's tripping, if the whole house is losing power. It will probably be two breakers linked together.) If it is the master breaker tripping, then it may indeed be faulty. If it's a branch breaker, then it's probably a 15A breaker doing its job (though frequent tripping can damage it!).

If you're really overloading the master breaker by frying eggs and making coffee at the same time, then you have a very strong argument that the place has unusably poor power and needs to be fixed. Otherwise it's a matter of figuring out which outlets are on which circuits and making sure each heavy appliance is on a separate circuit; this is a game well-known to renters and owners of older places, despite your earlier happier experience.

(Even on new houses, heavy appliances such as a/c units and heating and cooking appliances are recommended to each get their own 15A or 20A circuit. So the real question is how many circuits you've got throughout the house. And even current code permits multiple bedrooms to share one circuit, which means concurrent a/c or hair-dryer usage is a problem.)

Overall I'd say there are a lot of 1940's houses that were built fine for the time but which can't support three air conditioners at once. If you're willing to pay for an electrician, first have one take a look a the wiring and tell you (a) is it withing acceptable safety limits (b) what its capacity is (c) how the circuits are distributed (d) if there are any cost-effective measures that can be taken that will provide maximum benefit to you (ie, allowing effective a/c and cooking). Many savvy non-electricians could tell you this too but an electrician's report will carry more weight with the landlord.

I would not expect any professional electrician to agree to make changes to a rental property without permission from the landlord, and even the most diy-friendly jurisdictions normally do not permit unlicensed persons (even owners, much less tenants) to alter the wiring themselves on rental properties, but I hear amazing things about Texas so who knows.

Chip C Toronto

Have you talked to the landlord?

You need to get straight, and communicate, what's happening. (Like, what breaker tripped and which outlets went dead- simple stuff.)

For about $30, you can get a 2-part circuit tracker (Sperry) to map outlets to breaker(s). So you can easily see which outlets share which breakers.

When the house was wired, there were no window a/c-s, and very few high-draw appliances. You may be putting old wiring and devices under serious stress. Be sure to have a battery-powered smoke detector.

Sounds like rewiring may be in order, to properly distribute loads on circuits. Maybe to replace old, brittle, cable. If panel/subpanel permits. Landlord will want say on this, certainly. HTH, J

what size amps is the breaker that is tripping?? what is the amp draw listed on each ac unit?does that breaker run the whole house? you may get an accurate anwer to your problem if you can advise. lucas

If you want this fixed, the fix is almost certain to involve running a new power line from the service panel to wherever you want the AC unit(s). Depending on how much of a PITA this is, it's going to run between a couple hundred and a bit over a thousand dollars. Your landlord is unlikely to do this unless you offer to pay for it.

--Goedjn

You are likely overloading circuits. What would be useful is making a map. Shut off one breaker then document which outlets and lights it controls, also make note of breaker size. 15A, 20A, etc. Then you can come back here with the details.

i.e I have a 15A circuit with only one 60 watt light on it yet it will not support adding a microwave which only draws 5Amps. THEN you can theorize that the problem is a faulty breaker, bad wiring or an unknown load from an adjacent tenant.

The answer is no. It sounds like the breakers are doing exactly what they are supposed to, which is trip the circuit on an overload. As others have said, the house wasn't wired by today's standards or for today's appliances, but there is probably nothing technically wrong with it and only a prince of a landlord would pay to have it all upgraded

An AC should be on it's own breaker.

If you want to know how much it costs, call an electrician, d>I have a problem I hope someone can help with.

As somebody already mentioned, it sounds like to many outlets are on one breaker.

Try and identify a different outlet that is on a different breaker to hook one of your a/c units to.

If you need to, find out what amperage your a/c unit draws ( look on the label ), get an extension cord sized to handle that amperage load, and plug the ac/ unit in ANYWHERE in the house that has an outlet on a different breaker.

Mapping which breakers power which outlets in the house will let you do this....

You are so wrong.

That is exactly the kind of question one should ask a newgroup. I can't think of a more appropriate question.

As to your response, that is exactly the wrong thing to say as is "hire a professional". Such idiotic responses completely wastes bandwidth.