Hi Folks,
Long time lurker, first time poster. I wanted to share my story for posterity here since this forum has helped me so much in the past. If this violates the rules in any way please feel free to delete, but I hope someone might find it useful so I'll give it a go.
I'm the owner of a SquareD QO panel with a mix of dual function, AFCI, and traditional breakers from ~2015/2016. We have a total of 9 dual function breakers protecting circuits in the kitchen, outdoor receptacles, the garage, bathrooms, etc. We've had several random trips across different breakers over the years but seldom enough that I could never really diagnose what was going on. That all changed 2 days ago after a heavy rain storm. After the storm, every single dual function breaker in the box would eventually trip, sometimes after only a couple of minutes. At other times we could go hours without issue. Sometimes a single breaker would trip, while at other times clusters of breakers would trip one after another. Every single AFCI and traditional breaker was fine. They never tripped once. I did however notice faint buzzing from certain lights and from the breakers themselves. Our LED lights are on dimmers and have always had issues with flickering and they were flickering a bit more than normal. I had always assumed this was primarily due to an incompatibility with our dimmer switches. These clues all turned out to be key, but I didn't know it at the time. I spent hours trying to narrow down what was going on ranging from unplugging every questionable device in the house to turning breakers off one by one to see if I could isolate a specific circuit. I inspected every breaker for lose wires or screws with no obvious culprits. A dual function breaker with a straight run to a single receptacle with nothing plugged into it was tripping multiple times an hour. Nothing made sense. At one point I was convinced that humidity in the basement and temperature differential caused by the warm breakers and cool block walls was causing condensation in the breakers themselves. That was reinforced by a false period of bliss after turning on the AC and pointing a fan at the breaker box, but it didn't last.
After sitting down and thinking for a while, I came to the conclusion that I was chasing ghosts. This didn't seem to be an arc fault issue. It didn't seem like a neutral/ground issue inside my house either. Nothing in the box was lose or wired improperly as far as I could tell. Before heading to bed for the night and calling my electrician in the morning, I decided to inspect the line coming into the house. Everything looked nicely sealed and tidy. No signs of moisture. As I turned around to walk back, I heard a buzzing in the distance that sounded exactly like what I was faintly hearing from the breakers. I walked in the dark to the pole on my neighbors property, and sure enough, it was periodically buzzing loudly (almost more a sizzling sound) and sparking up near the insulators. I called the power company that night, but ultimately they weren't able to make out until late the next afternoon.
The next day as I waited for the power company to come out I called Schneider Electric and spoke to one of their advanced service techs. I relayed my story and asked him if he thought the situation at the pole could explain my tripping dual function breakers. He had me check the date codes on the breakers and explained that the ones I have are first generation and far more sensitive to dirty power issues than the newer ones and that it was quite possible the issues were related. He was very nice and helpful. Later in the afternoon our power company was able to come out and checked out the lines. He couldn't detect any issues when inspecting the power coming into the house, but after I brought him over to the pole he agreed something was wrong and went up to take a look. When he came back down he showed me what was going on. The distribution line is aluminum with a copper wire attached using an aluminum connector. He showed me the connector, and it was quite lose and burned out due to galvanic corrosion caused by the dissimilar metals. He also indicated it was installed improperly, but I wasn't quite sure regarding the details (apparently it was upside down?). He replaced everything on the pole with new connectors and everything has been fantastic since. My LED lights no longer flicker on the dimmers. The overly sensitive dual function breakers are (so far!) no longer tripping. I no longer hear buzzing from my lights nor from the pole.
I wanted to relay this story because I spent so much time running around convinced there was something wrong with the wiring or breakers that I didn't think to check what was happening outside the house. The lesson I learned is to stop and really try to get a bigger picture of what's going on before spending hours trying to endlessly diagnose issues that don't make any sense. I hope this story might help folks in the future avoid the same fate!
Long time lurker, first time poster. I wanted to share my story for posterity here since this forum has helped me so much in the past. If this violates the rules in any way please feel free to delete, but I hope someone might find it useful so I'll give it a go.
I'm the owner of a SquareD QO panel with a mix of dual function, AFCI, and traditional breakers from ~2015/2016. We have a total of 9 dual function breakers protecting circuits in the kitchen, outdoor receptacles, the garage, bathrooms, etc. We've had several random trips across different breakers over the years but seldom enough that I could never really diagnose what was going on. That all changed 2 days ago after a heavy rain storm. After the storm, every single dual function breaker in the box would eventually trip, sometimes after only a couple of minutes. At other times we could go hours without issue. Sometimes a single breaker would trip, while at other times clusters of breakers would trip one after another. Every single AFCI and traditional breaker was fine. They never tripped once. I did however notice faint buzzing from certain lights and from the breakers themselves. Our LED lights are on dimmers and have always had issues with flickering and they were flickering a bit more than normal. I had always assumed this was primarily due to an incompatibility with our dimmer switches. These clues all turned out to be key, but I didn't know it at the time. I spent hours trying to narrow down what was going on ranging from unplugging every questionable device in the house to turning breakers off one by one to see if I could isolate a specific circuit. I inspected every breaker for lose wires or screws with no obvious culprits. A dual function breaker with a straight run to a single receptacle with nothing plugged into it was tripping multiple times an hour. Nothing made sense. At one point I was convinced that humidity in the basement and temperature differential caused by the warm breakers and cool block walls was causing condensation in the breakers themselves. That was reinforced by a false period of bliss after turning on the AC and pointing a fan at the breaker box, but it didn't last.
After sitting down and thinking for a while, I came to the conclusion that I was chasing ghosts. This didn't seem to be an arc fault issue. It didn't seem like a neutral/ground issue inside my house either. Nothing in the box was lose or wired improperly as far as I could tell. Before heading to bed for the night and calling my electrician in the morning, I decided to inspect the line coming into the house. Everything looked nicely sealed and tidy. No signs of moisture. As I turned around to walk back, I heard a buzzing in the distance that sounded exactly like what I was faintly hearing from the breakers. I walked in the dark to the pole on my neighbors property, and sure enough, it was periodically buzzing loudly (almost more a sizzling sound) and sparking up near the insulators. I called the power company that night, but ultimately they weren't able to make out until late the next afternoon.
The next day as I waited for the power company to come out I called Schneider Electric and spoke to one of their advanced service techs. I relayed my story and asked him if he thought the situation at the pole could explain my tripping dual function breakers. He had me check the date codes on the breakers and explained that the ones I have are first generation and far more sensitive to dirty power issues than the newer ones and that it was quite possible the issues were related. He was very nice and helpful. Later in the afternoon our power company was able to come out and checked out the lines. He couldn't detect any issues when inspecting the power coming into the house, but after I brought him over to the pole he agreed something was wrong and went up to take a look. When he came back down he showed me what was going on. The distribution line is aluminum with a copper wire attached using an aluminum connector. He showed me the connector, and it was quite lose and burned out due to galvanic corrosion caused by the dissimilar metals. He also indicated it was installed improperly, but I wasn't quite sure regarding the details (apparently it was upside down?). He replaced everything on the pole with new connectors and everything has been fantastic since. My LED lights no longer flicker on the dimmers. The overly sensitive dual function breakers are (so far!) no longer tripping. I no longer hear buzzing from my lights nor from the pole.
I wanted to relay this story because I spent so much time running around convinced there was something wrong with the wiring or breakers that I didn't think to check what was happening outside the house. The lesson I learned is to stop and really try to get a bigger picture of what's going on before spending hours trying to endlessly diagnose issues that don't make any sense. I hope this story might help folks in the future avoid the same fate!
