F**** electrical is pissing me loff

[Cannafornia]

Ok so I'm always close to maxed out in my apartment. Two 600 watt lights, an 8" inline fan, and 120 watt flourescent fixture are my constants.

About 3 times a week on average my fucking circuits trip its making me want to pull my pubes out by the roots!

I have a 20 amp circuit on the breaker box that I'm always going out to reset. When the room is going, I turn off all the lights in the house that i'm not using and every bulb has a low energy CFL too.

Is it going to make any difference if I run an extension cord for maybe the dehumidifier and the fan? If i spread the load out between outlets in different rooms that is.

But really I am wondering if there's any way to have an electrician give me some breathing room without alerting the property company? Or the electric company?/

I have a great relationship with the property managers so far. I never call them and they never bother me. Would hate to upset that. But it's seriously like I love this place, the actual space it's an awesome apartment but I might have to rent another location for my meds project because of this crap.

[Cannafornia]

forgot to mention the dehumidifier, a delonghi 400 dep I think. It's got energy star rating but nowhere anywhere does it tell me how many amps this thing uses.

[Irie1]

Hey Cannafornia! Dehumidifiers use a lot of electricity. This will definitely trip your breaker. How many breakers do you have in your box? If you have more than 1 that is rated at 15 or 20 amps, then you have multiple 120 circuits and we should be able to tackle this with ease. If not, than we may need to alter your wiring. Do you have tripable circuits in the bathroom/kitchen? I mean the GFI plugs that have the reset button in the middle. If so these are almost always on there own circuit. I do live in your area and was an electrician in the summers in college so.....anywho hope that helps! Good luck, Peace!

:cool2:

[nuggdigger]

So how many watts are you running on twenty amps? The breaker is tripping for a reason. As a breaker grows old the contacts on the spring weaken and they trip easier. Replacing, upgrading them is the 10 dollar fix. I have 45 amps on three breakers in my room. Heavier amp loads need heavier wire gage too etc. Took a bit of rewiring but was worth it for an owned place.Apartments have limitations of course...

good luck:kind:

[Cannafornia]

Yes, I have a few outlets in the house that have GFIs on them. ALso, the breaker has been tripping about the same even before I put in the dehumidifier.

I should get the breakers replaced with new ones how can I do that?

[criminalzen]

well .. you needed more juice before you plugged in the dehumdifyer.

you could use cords.

you could try putting the ballasts on seperate timers and slightly staggering the on times.

[nuggdigger]

modern breakers are easily replaced in the main breakerbox. They snap into the breakerbox, no screwing required. Shut off the master power, unscrew the power wire off the outside of the breaker you wish to change, then pry it out, they are tucked under the middle of the box, so they pry out on the outside edge usually.Then snap in the new breaker, rehook the power wire to the circuit and flip on the main power:) Note, this is not for newbs..it helps to understand how 220 power is distributed in the breaker box. You need to have balanced phase on both 110 volt sides of your of your legs for electrical safety and balance. For me i stopped using a double 40 amp breaker that the old airconditioner was on, so i snapped it out and put in two single 20 ampers. I ran new 20 amp wire to the breakers and set up electrical boxes in my space. Also the room was already on a 15 amp circuit to start with. Never tripped a breaker since and have ran up to 3000 watts total power in there simultaneously. I know i could run a lot more..but it was enough anyways.
peace:kind:

[Cannafornia]

I read that, nugg, many times and it makes sense but no way would I attempt it myself. I know of a friendly neighborhood electrician, is this something that could be done to give me another 10-15 amps without alerting the landlord or the power co.?

[The Cannarchist]

Just get your buddy to put in 3 x 20 amp single pole breakers where you currently use 15 amps breakers for the circuits that you are running off.Spread the load around those and you should be ok.

[c-ray]

that's not much wattage, you could split it between 20 amp circuits no problemo

[nuggdigger]

There is a way of adding a ciruit to an already full electrical box. This may not be the best from a balanced load point of view, ie. 220 volts being split into two 110 legs and both legs amps being balanced etc. Prorating is set at about 70% in the box, so this gives margin for error. How this is accomplished is by the fact one never runs all the circuits fully loaded at once. For example who runs the ac and furnace at the same time, thus they are put on opposite legs..etc. and only a percentage of total load available is ever used. So as i mentioned there is a breaker you can get called a tandem device or "skinnie" that is two breakers side by side that fit in a normal single slot. This gives another circut for you to play with, but you will have to run a new circuit wire to boxes in the grow area and tie it to this circuit. Here is a typical pic of the device. from the fwiw department..

peace

[Cannafornia]

ok so here's the deal. This panel is inside the apartment. The room it is in, is the one that the lights are in. This room is not listed on the pictured panel, it is on the outdoor panel where i have to reset the breaker. That panel outdoors has 3 red switches that are unlabeled, and one 20 amp black switch labeled "service connect".

Thanks for the tip about GFI outlets, I have 2 of those so with extension cords I can make it work but of course it would be nicer to be able to keep everything plugged where it is, in one room and have some breathing space.

[soulmate]

I had the same problem with any outlet in my Kitchen. Everytime I start the Microwave, the fuse would blow after about 20 seconds. It ended up being the outlet, it was very old and was not letting the plug for the Micro, plug in tightly. I change the outlet and haven't had to replace the fuse since.