I’m having a problem with a circuit breaker tripping on a bedroom circuit with 5 receptacles. It’s tripping without anything being plugged in. The circuit has been installed for 2 years. Any ideas on what could be causing this. Please tell me its probably a faulty breaker, that will be an easy fix.
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That is one of the possibilities
Another one is that you burn the house down.
In between are a few other scenarios.
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A little more information might help.
How long has the circuit breaker been tripping with nothing plugged in?
Have you verified that no other outlets or devices besides the bedroom are on that circuit?
At about the time that the breaker began tripping was any other work done to walls in that room or adjacent rooms? Any pictures hung, drywall work, etc.
One quick easy thing you can do is pull your devices out of the boxes and make sure a ground wire isn't touching a hot. If it's a newer house start at the light switch as the main junction for that room is probably there. Wrap electrical tape around the terminal screws on the devices as you check them. That should prevent it from happening in the future.
Also if the main junction for that room is in the light switch box you can break the joints apart there and determine what side the problem is on. Either on the line or load. Follow me?
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Is it an AFCI breaker? (look for a white pigtail running from the breaker to the neutral bus) Many areas in the last few years have required these in bedroom circuits and they can be prone to nuisance tripping.
You could try swapping it out for a regular breaker and see if there is any change.
Scott.
I can only come up with 2 possibles:
1) Short somewhere - as someone else said - start by pulling all of the devices out of their boxes - leave connected - turn breaker back on and see if it trips.
-This would be a good time to check for spider nests which bridge between the hot screw and a ground or neutral.
2) Breaker gone bad - trade out breaker to test / confirm diagnosis.
Jim
I will guess this is an AFCI (has a test and reset button on it).
Usually these trip because a neutral is touching a ground. I bet it is the box for the ceiling fixture/fan
Could there be moisture in your walls affecting that circuit?
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