I have a 20 amp electric circuit that feeds most outlets on the second floor of a house I’m renovating. I noticed that most of my tools would start and then stop, or they would start and run for awhile (shop lights for instance) and then shut off, but the breaker wasn’t tripping. I would toggle the breaker and that would temporarily clear the problem.
Since I wasn’t sure of the reason, I’ve been avoiding this circuit and running off a 20 amp circuit from the first floor. I bought a Clamp-on ammeter to check the quality of the circuits. The one from the first floor gives me a 15 amp reading but any of the outlets on the second floor only register about 3 amps. I checked the circuit right off of the breaker and it registers 3 amps there as well. Nothing is plugged into that circuit.
I had a spare Siemen’s breaker, but that didn’t improve the situation. That puzzles me a bit. I figured we might have a loose connection at the junction box in the 3rd floor attic (outlets daisy chain and homerun back to this box, and 12-2 takes it to the panel in the basement) but shouldn’t the amps be registering higher right off the breaker?
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Replies
Dr Kirchoff says the amps will be the same anywhere in the circuit but the voltage should be higher right at the breaker if the circuit is loaded. My guess is you have a bad connection somewhere. Finding it may be a trick. You could start with a fixed load on a part of the circuit that is failing (a few hundred watts) and then start checking for voltage drop up the line, working back towards the panel. The bad splice will be hot to the touch so be careful. If you used a space heater for the load it might be smoking. ;)
Also remember, if the bad connection is in the neutral, the neutral will have a higher voltage on it. (should be close to ground plus a couple volts under load)
Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into them this evening.
B