Slighty OT: Need some electrical help - Pronto!

[Mazeroth]

Three days ago I walk in from work and my wife says there's a burning smell in the basement. I walk down and sure enough, it smells a little of burnt electronics. I tried to isolate the cause for a solid 30 minutes but came up empty-handed so I opened the windows for a few hours until the smell left. I then inspected every few hours to see if the smell came back but it didn't.

Fast forward to 30 minutes ago.

I walk into the computer room and turn on a little 1500w portable heater along with my computer, which I do all the time. I notice the floor lamp starting to pulsate so I immediately think to run over and turn the 1500w heater off, thinking it was getting ready to trip the breaker. I do so and the lamp is still pulsating. I immediately run downstairs thinking I'm going to catch the cause for the burnt smell and sure enough, the breaker box is making that "electricity zapping" sound. I turn off the family room breaker and the sound stops. Just to be sure that was the only culprit I turned it back on and quickly turned the others off, with no stopping the sound. So, I have isolated the sound. I then ran upstairs and unplugged everything from all the family room outlets and when the breaker is back on there's no sound. Plug one thing in and it starts all over again. I smelled every outlet just to see if there was a short or something(give me a break, I'm new to this!) but all checked out ok.

So, what's a guy to do? Should I go out and buy a new breaker from the local Home Depot, turn off my main 150A and install a new breaker? Or is this something I should pay someone $200 to come out and fix? I helped my Dad wire up our pole barn a few years ago and understand electricity a little better than your average Joe (I think) so if you think this is something I could tackle solo let me know.

Thanks.

[Paul H]

Maz,

Firstly, I'm a civil engineer by training. I have some electrical experience including the complete wiring of my recently constructed new home. I am not however an electrician.

Rule #1: If you're not totally comfortable with a particular type of electrical work don't do it; hire an electrician.

If you are comfortable and competent (as your post suggests) to replace the breaker I'd do that.

Also while you're in the store pick up a simple outlet checker and use it to check all the outlets - it costs ~$10. It's a simple device that looks like a male plug with a row of led lights on the back. The led's light when you plug it into an outlet and their colours will tell you if the outlet is grounded, shorted, etc. Here's the one at the big orange place: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...cStoreNum=8125

It sounds like your breaker may be overworked/worn - they tend to buzz when they have too much current flowing through, especially as they get older, especially if they're often fully loaded.

Typical electrical code requirements allow a continuous load on a breaker of 80% of the rated breaker load (i.e. a 15A breaker shouldn't see more than 12A continuous). You stated in your post that you had a 1500 watt heater plus a computer plus I'm guessing a light or two; probably 1800 watts = 15Amps at 120 volts. If you have a 15A breaker in that circuit (probably as that's a typical home circuit size) you might want to think about running the heater on a separate breaker.

[Mazeroth]

Thanks for the reply, Paul.

I pulled the breaker out after turning the main off and sure enough the side of the breaker was white (black housing, normally) and smelled. It's too late now to go out and buy a breaker so I left it turned off, put it back in and kicked the main on until tomorrow when I can fix it. I ran a 16 gauge 25' extension cord into the computer room so I can communicate with you guys for the time being, and, you know, to surf the net!

I have one of those circuit testers but I think I left it at my brother's house when we were testing his circuits. Whenever something could come in handy it always seems to be lent out!

Again, thanks for the input. I'll keep you posted.

[chasw98]

I have wired several homes and have worked with industrial electric for many years. In my experience, once a breaker starts to go, it will work but usually with unpleasant and unpredictable side effects. It might not trip when it should is the biggest problem and then you run the risk of damaging the internal wiring in your house. While the breaker is out of circuit you should run some resistance tests with a good digital multimeter and see if any damage might have occured to your internal wiring. Better to be safe than sorry. Hopefully only the breaker is damaged. Oh, and buy 2 breakers when you replace it so you have a spare.