Main breaker trips, Or appliances turn on by themselves.

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Sweetpete

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My house has is older and has a 100 amp main breaker. It started about a month ago that the main breaker is tripping or some of the appliances will turn on. Usually after 5 pm' The 100 amp breaker is cool when it trips. We thought the breaker was bad so we replaced it. Same thing. Random trip or the appliances turn on! I had an electrician out and he checked everything inside the house and it was all normal. 30 years of electrical work and never seen anything like it.. Today the power company put new wire from the house to the pole. Shortly after 5pm the main 100 amp breaker tripped! What is the solution!
 
I have seen this before. When 💩 just starts turning on by itself….Poltergeist or the house was built on an old burial ground
 
Replaced old main breaker but supply wires or the panel bus were one time overheated and also needed replaced? That will get the new breaker eventually as that material is still heating up more than it should when there is load carried on it.

Not sure what to say about appliances turning on randomly, about has to be electronic controlled appliances and some sort of interference is effecting those controls.
 
Hire a witch to look into it. :)

Seriously if the main breaker is tripping it is tripping because it is seeing excessive current. As long as it is a standard thermal magnetic breaker is highly unlikely that any kind of interference would trip it.

Could also be that the breaker is overheating but if you're saying it's cool that's probably not what's happening.

You need to hire someone who has experience with this kind of problem to hunt it down. It is unlikely to be cheap to do so.

I don't know about the appliances turning on randomly. That could be just about anything.
 
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petersonra said:
Hire a witch to look into it. :)

Seriously if the main breaker is tripping it is tripping because it is seeing excessive current. As long as it is a standard thermal magnetic breaker is highly unlikely that any kind of interference would trip it.

Could also be that the breaker is overheating but if you're saying it's cool that's probably not what's happening.

You need to hire someone who has experience with this kind of problem to hunt it down. It is unlikely to be cheap to do so.

I don't know about the appliances turning on randomly. That could be just about anything.
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Dont get supernatural just yet... The toaster could be getting hacked. Yes, we are there.
 
The appliances that turn on are : washer, dryer, microwave, TV. and the furnace, the thermostat goes to 99.
It sounds like there are a lot of superstitious electricians. We are talking serious electrical! Call someone who is experienced in this kind of work???
Who would that be?? It does not sound like you electricians don't have the experience!
 
Sweetpete said:
The appliances that turn on are : washer, dryer, microwave, TV. and the furnace, the thermostat goes to 99.
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All of those appliances are likely to be controlled by a microprocessor, and so perhaps a voltage surge on the powerline is affecting the logical state of the processors and causing these effects.
A typical thermal magnetic main breaker would not likely be tripped by a voltage surge unless it has a load that would draw a large current during such a surge. Such loads might include relatively large motors; heating elements in water heaters, stoves, furnaces; and larger capacitors (probably less likely in a home). If a surge protection device is present after the main breaker, it's possible that it's doing its job in clamping excessive voltage surges, but this produces large peak currents which then trip the breaker. Even if a surge protector is working to prevent equipment damage, its let through voltage may still allow sufficiently large voltage spikes to cause equipment malfunctions.

Sweetpete said:
It started about a month ago that the main breaker is tripping or some of the appliances will turn on. Usually after 5 pm.
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Perhaps there are switching surges that are happening in the power company's distribution network. Or probably less likely, a customer that is switching a very large load.
 
Sweetpete said:
The appliances that turn on are : washer, dryer, microwave, TV. and the furnace, the thermostat goes to 99.
It sounds like there are a lot of superstitious electricians. We are talking serious electrical! Call someone who is experienced in this kind of work???
Who would that be?? It does not sound like you electricians don't have the experience!
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I'm glad it doesn't sound like we don't have experience! There is enough experience here to fill a small State! We are not on site and I don't know how you expect anyone to diagnose your exact problem over the internet. Your electrician didn't even find it and he was on site.

Your problem is odd and unique, and somewhat unbelievable as far as the appliances turning on. I would have your electrician change out the panel since replacing the breaker didn't help. Someone mentioned that the panel bus could be damaged and is heating up the new breaker. Probably would even up the service to 200A. Only thing I can say about the appliances is if they have electronic controls something is triggering them, but it is quite odd! Also I would have the POCO check their voltage at and after the transformer.
 
Multiple appliances turning on or starting operation by themselves is truly bizarre. I want to ask if this thread is a joke. If not, synchro's explanation is the only one that makes any kind of sense. Something from the utility causing this. Get them out.
 
Not a clue about the appliances but have someone check to see if any other house is fed by your panel. I have seen that a few times where a child's house is fed from the parents' or vice versa. That may explain the tripped breaker. How long have you been there? Have any families lived there side by side with relatives? Are any neighbors having trouble? A long shot but I have seen such.
 
jaggedben said:
Multiple appliances turning on or starting operation by themselves is truly bizarre. I want to ask if this thread is a joke. If not, synchro's explanation is the only one that makes any kind of sense. Something from the utility causing this. Get them out.
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I was thinking the same. Either the thread is a joke or the electricians diagnosing/doing the service call are a joke.
 
You may be the victim of pranks. I was involved with trying to figure out random breaker trips on various circuits. Turned out breakers never tripped but were turned off by a 5-year-old. Who gets home around 5?
 
dpeter said:
You may be the victim of pranks. I was involved with trying to figure out random breaker trips on various circuits. Turned out breakers never tripped but were turned off by a 5-year-old. Who gets home around 5?
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Good thought.
 
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