Ronnythebull
Member
- Location
- Mentor Ohio
The development (built between 2016 and 2019) in which I live all use Square D Combination and Dual Function breakers, of which most are 20A QO120CAFI. There are approximately 40 houses all with roughly the same Square D panels. Each house experiences the same problem: when we lose, and subsequently are restored, utility power, ALL of these breakers trip. We are still trying to figure out if the breaker-tripping is when we lose power or when it comes back on, but nevertheless, it is a consistent issue. Dominion is our utility and they have no known solution. There are thousands of answers/solutions to nuisance load-side tripping on the web, but nothing on tripping when the utility power is restored.
Note: initially I thought this to be a function (trip on power loss) built into the breaker, but another thing is happening at the same time that doesn't involve these breakers. We all have GFCI receptacles (and their downstream protected outlets) that are controlled by a standard breaker that never trips during these outages, but all of the GFCI receptacle breakers trip and have to be reset.
We also performed a test, with Dominion's assistance, whereby they pulled the meter and allowed the homeowner's whole-house generator to come on. No tripping of anything happened.
We can only conclude that the power quality of Dominion's service (upon failure and/or restoration) is the problem. But we cannot find any clear documentation that would explain it.
Note: initially I thought this to be a function (trip on power loss) built into the breaker, but another thing is happening at the same time that doesn't involve these breakers. We all have GFCI receptacles (and their downstream protected outlets) that are controlled by a standard breaker that never trips during these outages, but all of the GFCI receptacle breakers trip and have to be reset.
We also performed a test, with Dominion's assistance, whereby they pulled the meter and allowed the homeowner's whole-house generator to come on. No tripping of anything happened.
We can only conclude that the power quality of Dominion's service (upon failure and/or restoration) is the problem. But we cannot find any clear documentation that would explain it.