Why do you think the power keeps going out in the back bedrooms?

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Every couple months, sometimes more frequently, the power goes out in my back two bedrooms. The rest of the house will be fine, but for the bedrooms, the power goes out. I have to go in to the circuit box and flip the switch for the bedrooms, to get em going again.

I have a small 8000 btu ashrae portable air conditioner in the bedroom window. I think that might be the cause. But I have it hooked up to a power strip for safety. So would that still cause the circuit to flip?

Weird thing. It isn't just labeled "Bedrooms" on that switch inside the circuit box. It's labeled "ARC/Bedrooms". What does that mean?

I figured that there are some really smart aspies on here that can help.

 

[Forest Cat]

Could it be a arc-fault circuit breaker? I remember reading something about that being used for bedrooms some places. If it is, there could be some loose wiring or poor connections somewhere and that's why the power goes out.


Arc-fault circuit interrupter - Wikipedia

"In Canada and the United States, AFCI breakers have been required by the electrical codes for circuits feeding electrical outlets in residential bedrooms since the beginning of the 21st century".

 

[Tom]

I worked in electronics but not household electrical except a few DIY repairs.

What Forest says is I think true 'Arc Fault Circuit Breaker'. But I don't know what makes it different from standard CB.
If problem only started after you put in Air Conditioner you know it's very likely related.

Since it only happens occasionally the Air Conditioner is suspect as it likely draws a heavier load at times when going thru its cycles and pulls quite a few amps to begin with. Bedroom CBs are not usually very high rated. It may be hanging right oon the threshold and occasionally surpassing CB limit. Plus CBs do wear out once in a while and get trippy (or perhaps bad connection to it). One small thing you can do is make sure as little as possible is turned on in the bedrooms when you have Air Conditioner running.

The surge protector is protecting the Air Conditioner from a power surge in your electric supply, but I don't believe is protecting your electric supply (Circuit Breaker Box) from surges coming from the Air Conditioner. I may be wrong but I don't think that is how they functtion.

 

[Shamar]

Every couple months, sometimes more frequently, the power goes out in my back two bedrooms. The rest of the house will be fine, but for the bedrooms, the power goes out. I have to go in to the circuit box and flip the switch for the bedrooms, to get em going again.

I have a small 8000 btu ashrae portable air conditioner in the bedroom window. I think that might be the cause. But I have it hooked up to a power strip for safety. So would that still cause the circuit to flip?

Weird thing. It isn't just labeled "Bedrooms" on that switch inside the circuit box. It's labeled "ARC/Bedrooms". What does that mean?

I figured that there are some really smart aspies on here that can help.

It is not the BTU that counts here, it is the amps it draws, and ACs tend to draw a lot. You probably have 20 amp circuit breakers. Check the label on the AC and see how close to 20 it is rated. This is how much room you have for other things. I have no idea what ARC means I suggest you turn on a light in every room, then turn off that breaker and see what goes off. There may be some things you can shut off.

SOMETHING is drawing power through that circuit and tripping the breaker. Another possibility is the breaker itself is failing. I have seen this a number of times. Replacements costs anywhere from $5 to $20. It is a simple job and takes less than ten minutes on a slow day. An electrician will probably charge $200-$300 for this. It borders on aggravated robbery, but there is not much you can do. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS YOURSELF unless you know what you are doing. Maybe a friend can do it for you (wait a second - - we are all autistic here. Most of us have no friends). Good luck.

 

[Forest Cat]

SOMETHING is drawing power through that circuit and tripping the breaker. Another possibility is the breaker itself is failing.

Since it might be an arc-fault breaker, I'm a little worried that the breaker is tripped because something is arcing. A loose connection or something. That's not good, needs to be checked out. A different problem than just an overload from too many amps.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Does arcing mean what I think it does?

Like high school science- electrical current jumping and arcing between wires?

If so, that's really scary. Is it a fire hazard?

 

[Forest Cat]

Does arcing mean what I think it does?

Like high school science- electrical current jumping and arcing between wires?

If so, that's really scary. Is it a fire hazard?

Yes, but the good news is that it sounds like you have an arc-fault breaker. So that helps. But if something keeps tripping that breaker, you need to get someone to look at it. Someone who knows electricity and breakers well. You could call or write an electrician, explain the situation and hear what they say.

Are you renting the apartment? If so, this is a problem for the landlord/owner to handle.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Check the label on the AC and see how close to 20 it is rated.

11.5 amps

 

[Forest Cat]

11.5

11.5 amps? That's a decent amount of amp, that'll trip things when it's combined with other things using electricity. 16 amps is the most common circuit here, close to 11, but maybe it's different in the US. You guys have 120 volts in your sockets, we have 220 here.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Yes, but the good news is that it sounds like you have an arc-fault breaker. So that helps. But if something keeps tripping that breaker, you need to get someone to look at it. Someone who knows electricity and breakers well. You could call or write an electrician, explain the situation and hear what they say.

Are you renting the apartment? If so, this is a problem for the landlord/owner to handle.

I put in a maintenance request just now. Thank you

 

[Jeff T]

Every couple months, sometimes more frequently, the power goes out in my back two bedrooms. The rest of the house will be fine, but for the bedrooms, the power goes out. I have to go in to the circuit box and flip the switch for the bedrooms, to get em going again.

I have a small 8000 btu ashrae portable air conditioner in the bedroom window. I think that might be the cause. But I have it hooked up to a power strip for safety. So would that still cause the circuit to flip?

Weird thing. It isn't just labeled "Bedrooms" on that switch inside the circuit box. It's labeled "ARC/Bedrooms". What does that mean?

I figured that there are some really smart aspies on here that can help.

At first I wondered if you lived in an older home? On the west coast USA?
Many older homes in CA had Zinsco breakers/boxes installed. They can be a fire hazard, they can get loose inside. They usually have a black body with different colored switches- your bedroom would have red 20a or blue 15a.
But then you mentioned the "ARC bedroom breaker"- I think Arc-Fault breakers came out after Zinsco stopped production.
In that case, you may have loose connections at a box, perhaps the one the A/C is plugged into. For a while outlets were produced that had 'push-in' connectors. The wire pushed in basically scraped on an angled sheet metal part to prevent the wire from backing out. My garbage disposer had stopped working- it turned out the oxidation at the scraped metal/ wire jct. had caused resistance/ high heat and melted the hot wire about four inches.
The best connection would be the side-screw/plate variety of outlet, using dielectric grease.

 

[grommet]

Every couple months, sometimes more frequently, the power goes out in my back two bedrooms. The rest of the house will be fine, but for the bedrooms, the power goes out. I have to go in to the circuit box and flip the switch for the bedrooms, to get em going again.

I have a small 8000 btu ashrae portable air conditioner in the bedroom window. I think that might be the cause. But I have it hooked up to a power strip for safety. So would that still cause the circuit to flip?

Weird thing. It isn't just labeled "Bedrooms" on that switch inside the circuit box. It's labeled "ARC/Bedrooms". What does that mean?

I figured that there are some really smart aspies on here that can help.

I think it could be dangerous to connect it to a power strip. I would suggest connecting it directly to the outlet or use a special extension cord made for air conditioners. Air conditioners have a large steady load, not like a toaster, microwave or other appliances that use a lot of power for a short period.

I do not have ideas about whether the air conditioner is causing the circuit breaker to trip.

 

[Au Naturel]

Every couple months, sometimes more frequently, the power goes out in my back two bedrooms. The rest of the house will be fine, but for the bedrooms, the power goes out. I have to go in to the circuit box and flip the switch for the bedrooms, to get em going again.

I have a small 8000 btu ashrae portable air conditioner in the bedroom window. I think that might be the cause. But I have it hooked up to a power strip for safety. So would that still cause the circuit to flip?

Weird thing. It isn't just labeled "Bedrooms" on that switch inside the circuit box. It's labeled "ARC/Bedrooms". What does that mean?

I figured that there are some really smart aspies on here that can help.

According to my hand candy calculator, 8000 BTU converts to 2344 watts. At 110 volts, that comes out to around 21.3 amps. At 120 volts it would come out at 19.5 amps. Your actual current draw will be between these levels. Most household circuits are around 20 amps. You are maxing out the circuit and possibly overloading it a bit.

If anything else is on that circuit, it will pop the circuit. It is a kind of a pain to do it, but you need to find every outlet in the apartment that shares that circuit and make sure nothing is plugged into them while you are using the AC. (It is often like one plug in every room.) The breakers are popping to prevent your wiring from overheating and starting a fire.

 

[Shamar]

At first I wondered if you lived in an older home? On the west coast USA?
Many older homes in CA had Zinsco breakers/boxes installed. They can be a fire hazard, they can get loose inside. They usually have a black body with different colored switches- your bedroom would have red 20a or blue 15a.
But then you mentioned the "ARC bedroom breaker"- I think Arc-Fault breakers came out after Zinsco stopped production.
In that case, you may have loose connections at a box, perhaps the one the A/C is plugged into. For a while outlets were produced that had 'push-in' connectors. The wire pushed in basically scraped on an angled sheet metal part to prevent the wire from backing out. My garbage disposer had stopped working- it turned out the oxidation at the scraped metal/ wire jct. had caused resistance/ high heat and melted the hot wire about four inches.
The best connection would be the side-screw/plate variety of outlet, using dielectric grease.

I forgot about those stupid push ins. Every time I see one I cut the wire and attach it with the screws. Who is the idiot that came up with that. I had a house where they daisy chained a series of socket with that. If several sockets were in use, the first one heated up to dangerous levels. I pigtailed the wires and attached a jumper to the socket. I can easily see arcs developing in those things.

 

[Hypnalis]

General rule for home electricity: heating and cooling take a lot of energy compared to most other household stuff.

The "living area" circuits in my place can handle 2300 watts (so not really enough for that AirCon unit).

OP: Au Natural's advice is the best possible without spending money.

I'll just add that if you use an extension cable, make sure it can handle the current. Here they're marked in Watts (W).
Some are for max 1000 Watts, which isn't enough for your AirCon (assume 2500W). The cord I use for power tools, originally picked up at the local mall, is ok to 4000 Watts.

@Au Naturel
Thanks for doing the numbers. Last time I cared about BTUs was when I was studying (long ago), so I wasn't going to look them up

(Forest Cat: on 230(ish) volts the equivalent fuses are half the Amp value - 11.5A on US voltage isn't enough to iron clothes (my iron is 2000W)).

 

[Shevek]

I usually make an electrical map of a house, showing every light, outlet, and appliance, and listing which breaker they are wired to. It comes in handy when I want to plug in something with a high draw, and keep the computers safe, for instance. In old houses, I'd usually find one circuit that was often tripping, and at the box it was wired together with another on the same breaker. Meanwhile, another breaker had just one or two items on it. Moving one wire fixed things. Turning off the main breaker makes the wire moving job super-safe.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

At first I wondered if you lived in an older home? On the west coast USA?
Many older homes in CA had Zinsco breakers/boxes installed. They can be a fire hazard, they can get loose inside. They usually have a black body with different colored switches- your bedroom would have red 20a or blue 15a.
But then you mentioned the "ARC bedroom breaker"- I think Arc-Fault breakers came out after Zinsco stopped production.
In that case, you may have loose connections at a box, perhaps the one the A/C is plugged into. For a while outlets were produced that had 'push-in' connectors. The wire pushed in basically scraped on an angled sheet metal part to prevent the wire from backing out. My garbage disposer had stopped working- it turned out the oxidation at the scraped metal/ wire jct. had caused resistance/ high heat and melted the hot wire about four inches.
The best connection would be the side-screw/plate variety of outlet, using dielectric grease.

My apartments were built about ten years ago. It's supposed to be energy efficient. My power bills are half of what they were at the old place built in the sixties.

The toilet even has two buttons on the lid, to flush it with whatever amount of water you need.

It may be new, but I trust old craftsmanship better. Everything modern is made of Chinesium.

 

[grommet]

Chinesium.

Some of the finest engineering and manufacture I have seen has been from China, better even than the Germans. They are capable of producing what is asked for, usually the lowest cost so a lot of cheap low quality products. But Apple has its manufacturing done there. Aerospace companies. Medical equipment. Really nice stuff.

 

[Cryptid]

have a small 8000 btu ashrae portable air conditioner in the bedroom window. I think that might be the cause. But I have it hooked up to a power strip for safety. So would that still cause the circuit to flip?

Your A/C unit is the most likely culprit. Try plugging it directly into the wall outlet to see if the breaker still trips.

Power strips do not prevent circuits from being overloaded, especially power strips lacking fuses or breakers of their own. The only "safety" such a power strip might provide is to prevent nearby lightning strikes from entering your equipment. But again, if there is no fuse or circuit breaker on your power strip, then it is nothing more than a glorified and expensive extension cord.

 

[Rocco]

Hi, I am a professional electrician. Your circuit breakers trip when they are overloaded or wires are shorted together.
There is a 99% chance you have too many electrical devices plugged into that circuit. The other 1% is loose or frayed connections or gremlins (just kidding) Just about any air conditioner at minimum needs its own 20amp circuit in the US.30 amp or higher depending on the size and amperage draw of the device.
Assuming you have good connections and none are loose.
If you can get a new circuit run just for the AC that would be best.
Arc fault circuit breakers can be problematic with some appliances or devices.
If you have additional electrical loads on that circuit that trips, the wires are probably getting warm at minimum. Try turning off as much as you can on that circuit while the AC is in use.
Are there any lights on that same circuit?

Inrush current is another factor. When you plug in or turn on any electrical device it instantly draws a lot more amps than normal operating amperage (current). An AC compressor cycling on and off pulls a lot of amps. So does any motor.

Power strips allow you plug in more stuff. More stuff equals more amps. Too many amps trips the breaker.

In addition, loose connections cause heat which can be dangerous. Heat can eventually trip a breaker too, and damage its internals. There are specific jobs where all an electrician spends all day with a temperature reading laser pointing at every single breaker to identify overloaded or faulty circuits.

Most extension cords are made of cheap small wire that is not suitable for powering anything useful. At minimum any frequently used extension cord should be a minimum of 12awg wire as a safety precaution. They are mostly color coded these days. Quality sized cords are more expensive than cheap small ones. Never buy a cord smaller than 14awg if you can afford better. 12awg is better and good for 20 amps. 10awg is huge a fabulous, can handle 25-30 amps and is super pricey.

The wires of a circuit are sized based on the loads they serve, and the breaker is sized to the wire size and load. You cannot just put in a larger size breaker without increasing the circuit wire size, so don’t just add a bigger breaker to solve a problem.
Typical US sizes 14awg 15 amp circuits were most common for years for branch circuits (room outlets, lighting circuits)
14 awg = 15 amp breaker
12 awg = 20amp
10 awg = 30 amp
Specialty circuits might have larger sized wires and bigger breakers, like AC, oven, dryer, major appliances. Most refrigerators need their own 20amp circuit.