unrelated circuits tripping

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tdexxx

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When my neighbor turns on her electric stove, three of her panel's circuit breakers, (which are unrelated to the stove circuit), trip. The stove continues working after those other breakers trip, but she says that it's hard to cook in the dark. What kind of situation could cause something like this? I suspect that her breaker panel, which I haven't seen yet, uses GFCI breakers and somehow the stove is affecting the neutral on the tripping circuits which causes the problem. Could that be it? Is there a more likely explanation? Please help.

Tom
 
First guess: AFCI's responding to arcing caused by a loose connection in or ahead of the panel exposed by the increased load current.

Questions:

Any of the tripping breakers AFCI or GFCI?

Always the same breakers? What circuits?
 
tdexxx said:
turns on her electric stove, three of her panel's circuit breakers, (which are unrelated to the stove circuit), trip.
Click to expand...
Possibly a bad neutral at the load center. The stove gets a lower voltage which takes longer to cook which she doesn't notice, and the other circuits get substantially higher voltage. This mostly assumes the breakers don't trip immediately.
 
G._S._Ohm said:
Possibly a bad neutral at the load center. The stove gets a lower voltage which takes longer to cook which she doesn't notice, and the other circuits get substantially higher voltage. This mostly assumes the breakers don't trip immediately.
Click to expand...

The stove would be 240 bad neutral or not the stove would not throw the voltage out of whack.
 
iwire said:
To add Larry's questions

Do the breakers trip immediately or does it take some time?

When they do trip is it all 3 of them at the same moment?
Click to expand...

Thanks to all who replied. Though I haven't yet visited the homeowner, from what she has told me I believe the breakers trip together and immediately when the stove is energized, and it's always the same three breakers that trip.

I won't be sure if the breakers are afci or gfci until I visit on Friday, but I hope they are since otherwise, I won't have a clue as to what's wrong. But assuming they are gfci or afci breakers, then could a shared neutral be the source of the trouble? I plan to run a temporary wire from the neutral bus in the panel to the stove and temporarily connect the stove's neutral to that wire. If energizing the stove with the temporary neutral in place doesn't cause the other breakers to trip, at least I'll know to look for a problem somewhere on the stove's neutral. Does that sound like a good plan?

Tom
 
The only problem with that plan is that some ranges have zero neutral current, although most have 120v loads such as lights, timer motors or electronics, etc.

The old GE multi-button panels. on the other hand, did switch elements among various L-L and L-N connections for various heat levels:

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LarryFine said:
The only problem with that plan is that some ranges have zero neutral current, although most have 120v loads such as lights, timer motors or electronics, etc.

The old GE multi-button panels. on the other hand, did switch elements among various L-L and L-N connections for various heat levels:
Click to expand...

True. But lacking any better theory, I'll suppose there's something about the stove's wiring that is causing a current imbalance between hot and neutral on the affected, (tripping), circuits, causing the gfci/afci to trip those breakers, and I'd think the likeliest way that could happen would be through a shared neutral. How a shared neutral could affect three circuits, though, I don't know. I am open to alternative theories, though.
 
tdexxx said:
True. But lacking any better theory, I'll suppose there's something about the stove's wiring that is causing a current imbalance between hot and neutral on the affected, (tripping), circuits, causing the gfci/afci to trip those breakers, and I'd think the likeliest way that could happen would be through a shared neutral. How a shared neutral could affect three circuits, though, I don't know. I am open to alternative theories, though.
Click to expand...

Are the three OCPD's SP and are they on the same split leg?
 
gndrod said:
Are the three OCPD's SP and are they on the same split leg?
Click to expand...
The tripping breakers are three in quantity and all single pole, but I won't be sure about which leg they're on until I go to the house on Friday. What are you thinking?

Tom
 
Is it a mobile home or doublewide? Was the stove recently replaced? There are so many mobile homes that are not grounded that it's not funny. Lots of resi guys and diy'ers do not pull a four wire feed from the pedestal, so the grounds are not properly bonded. If they replaced the stove, the new one may still have the bond strap from the neutral to ground connected and if there are issues with the other circuits, they might not show up until now. Just another possibility to check.:)
 
You might be able to check for a transient condition without using meters.

You already know that
with breakers on,
when the stove goes on
the breakers trip.

Try this:
With breakers off,
turn on stove,
then turn on one, two or three breakers and see if they hold.
 
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