Lighting Circuit Problem

[blugrs77]

Got a lighting circuit that keeps tripping a 30A breaker in this piece of crap restaurant. The circuit holds long enough for me to get my amprobe on it and when I do it reads 84A, then trips obviously. My question is would a short cause me to have that high of an amperage reading? I have never encountered this before. I have to trace out the circuit and the electric in this place is a total mess but they just like to nickel and dime it till something goes wrong like now.
Any thoughts?

 

[cadpoint]

They tapped the line for convience, or yes indeed an open short due to the tap...

Ask the owner what the last three Alt./Adds where at the spoon!

 

[blugrs77]

The manager said the circuit just tripped this week for the first time. They reset and it held until tonight. We have been servicing the place for about 6 months after the original service hacks went out of business. So I feel pretty sure that no one tapped onto the line, but you never know. I will look into it tomorrow. But I have never seen a circuit pull so much amperage off a short but usually I encounter dead shorts so that may be the reason for my unfamiliarity. Thnks.

 

[Hv&Lv]

What kind of lights? Bad ballast? Smell something other than bread burning? I have seen cord and plug connected items burning at the plugs draw large amounts of current, but the smell should be apparent. Could be a motor load on a tap from years ago that is now a bad motor. Maybe the roof vents?

 

[blugrs77]

Yeah its just a bunch of outside incandescent gooseneck lights for lighting a boardwalk.
Since everything is outside I couldn't smell that familiar burnt electric smell. A packed Friday night on a busy boardwalk was definitely not the time to start getting the exit. ladder out and start checking jboxes. Should make for an awesome Saturday though.There are some receptacles on the circuit though also with a bunch of stringers plugged in. I'll have to hop on the roof and see what we got in daylight. Thanks for the tips.

 

[ActionDave]

There is a high resistance fault somewhere. My guess is a a bad connection or something that involves moisture.

 

[haskindm]

Are the lights equipped with Heavy Duty Lamp-holders? If not, they cannot be on a 30-amp circuit anyway. The tripping breaker may be the least of their problems!

 

[K_Buz]

My first thought was a ballast was bad. If you looked at this problem at night, you might be surprised to find out those are not incandescent lamps. I've worked on many HID goosenecks with remote ballasts lately.