Got a call today from a guy I used to work with. He was trying to troubleshoot some parking lot lights. He had a total of 10 fixtures with a combined load of approx. 16 amps. It's 480v, and it,s on a 20amp breaker. Upon cold start he's getting 43A on 1 leg and 7A on the other.He said breaker would hold for about 30 seconds and then open.He ended up disconnecting 2 heads from one of the poles and it held. Amp draw was in line with what the rest of the connected load was.He said that ballasts checked good.Frustrated, he pulled the conductors going up the pole and replaced them.Visually inspected the 40 or so ft of #10thhn and found no nicks or damage. After rewiring, circuit was fine and amp draw was where it should be . The EGC was wire nutted where it came out of the base pvc and ran up to the heads. The only change he made was connecting the EGC to the pole physically with a lug. Any ideas on this?
excessive amp draw
- Thread starter nizak
- Start date
- Status
- Occupation
- Licensed Electrician
There was a fault somewhere and he cleared it. That is the only answer I can think of. What led him to disconnect those two heads?
Connecting the EGC to the pole was the right thing to do. I don't think doing that is what solved the problem.
Connecting the EGC to the pole was the right thing to do. I don't think doing that is what solved the problem.
ceb58
Senior Member
- Location
- Raeford, NC
Agreed, could have had a bad or loose connection with a wire nut. Moving the wires around in the lamp head could have cleared the fault.
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