breaker tripping

[Rewire]

drawing 2 amps breaker stays on for a few minutes then trips ,replaced breaker to no avail. circuit to outdoor post light.

 

[jmsbrush]

drawing 2 amps breaker stays on for a few minutes then trips ,replaced breaker to no avail. circuit to outdoor post light.

It sounds like a short.

 

[steve1223]

Are you geting a reading of 2 Amps? and your replaced the beaker and your still having a problem? is it a GFI beaker?

 

[jmsbrush]

I had this happen a year ago. 12/2 Uf fed a GFCI for a fountain. There was intermittent trips from time to time. I dug the wire up and found that the wire was somewhat melted and causing the fault.

 

[steve1223]

For the small price of pvc conduit i think its always a good idea to use it in underground installs. yes UF is easy to just drop in the ditch and walk away. But if your working for yourself and putting your name on the job it never hurts to take it one step further to know there will be less chance of a problem.

 

[Cow]

Meg it.......

 

[brian john]

Utilize a peak min max amp clamp
megger the circuit
perform a FOP on the CB

Isolate and identify

 

[LarryFine]

Try a 100w-or-so bulb in a rubber socket in series with the breaker and load wire. Making sure your light is the only thing on on the circuit, the 100w bulb will light up full when a short occurs.

You can do the same thing with the bulb at the switch if you want, just to make sure the problem is past the post light's switch. You may even find the short is inside the post, not underground

 

[masterinbama]

I know it's rare but I had a photocell that would short when it opened. Since most are closed when first energized I would check this, couldn't hurt.

 

[Rewire]

thanks for the input I told the tech to meg it to see if the isultion was bad