High amps on LED lighting circuit

[Michael Sampery]

All of a sudden, a 2 pole 20 amp 208 volt breaker started tripping on an LED circuit. When I troubleshot the circuit I found out that one leg was drawing 49 amps and the other leg was barely drawing anything at all. I also went through each light and disconnected that light from the circuit one at a time and the breaker still tripped when I did this on all of the lights. This circuit has been on constantly for around a year-and-a-half and hasn't had a problem and all of a sudden this started happening. Was wondering if anyone had any knowledge on this issue or has dealt with this in the past.

 

[gar]

170713-1041 EDT

Your question is not real clear.

You are implying a single two wire circuit supplying a parallel bank of LED lights supplied from a 208 voltage source.

208 implies a 3 phase wye source with 3 hot wires relative to ground, and one neutral with about 0 V to ground.

At 208 V how much current does one LED draw?
How many LEDs on this circuit?

What are your three phase voltages to neutral?
What is the neutral to ground voltage? Use a screwdriver in the earth somewhere and a high impedance meter.

My guess is that you have a resistive short to ground or neutral on the high current leg that is drawing a good portion of your high current. More information would have been useful.

.

 

[GoldDigger]

Screw or nail through cable?

Use a clamp ammeter to find where the current is going.

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