Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - circuit breaker tripping
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mr.bigl
07-07-02, 11:13 PM
My compressor keeps tripping the circuit breaker. The inside unit continues running but breker is tripped. What could this be?
lynn comstock
07-10-02, 12:41 AM
Does it happen in any pattern? Breakers trip from HEAT. If the breaker has a loose connection at the wire out terminal or at the buss bar in the back, the loose connection will produce heat and trip a breaker. If the panel is in the sun, the sun load adds to the heat inside of the breaker. Low voltage adds to the heat also. These types of trips tend to happen in the heat of the day.
If the trips happen at night, they may be caused by a compressor-starting problem. If the compressor recycles to quickly, it places a heavy load on the breaker because it will not restart instantly unless the compressor has special "hard start" components. This can be tested. Simply turn it off after several minutes of operation and then turn it on again in a second or two. Repeat this several times. It is a good test of the wiring and breaker. The breaker should hold when the compressor tries to restart and fails. There should normally be at least 5 minutes between compressor restarts on thermostat operation.
If the trips happen at night, they may be caused by a compressor-starting problem. If the compressor recycles to quickly, it places a heavy load on the breaker because it will not restart instantly unless the compressor has special "hard start" components. This can be tested. Simply turn it off after several minutes of operation and then turn it on again in a second or two. Repeat this several times. It is a good test of the wiring and breaker. The breaker should hold when the compressor tries to restart and fails. There should normally be at least 5 minutes between compressor restarts on thermostat operation.