I am troubleshooting a 24V DC purely resistive circuit consisting of light bulbs and resistors. This circuit is protected by a 20A circuit breaker. The circuit has been operating fine for some time, however recently the 20A breaker has been tripping. When measuring the current on this circuit we measure about 23A, obviously enough to trip the breaker after some time. The 20A breaker was specified and installed by manufacturer.
We have toubleshot circuit and not found anything obvious. We were thinking that maybe the current draw has been close to this tolerence for the last 6 months, and just now we are seeing it high enough to trip breker.
We have discussed upsizing the breaker to a 25A breaker however the wire in the circuit is only 14AWG. The wire is run in a bundle with other wire both in free air, and through small enclosures.
Do you think we can go ahead and upsize this breaker even though we have 14AWG wire? Does the way its routed help reduce heating, and allow more current capacity? Does the fact that the current is DC produce less heating and allow for a greater current capacity?
Do you think we should look to increase the size of this breaker?
We have toubleshot circuit and not found anything obvious. We were thinking that maybe the current draw has been close to this tolerence for the last 6 months, and just now we are seeing it high enough to trip breker.
We have discussed upsizing the breaker to a 25A breaker however the wire in the circuit is only 14AWG. The wire is run in a bundle with other wire both in free air, and through small enclosures.
Do you think we can go ahead and upsize this breaker even though we have 14AWG wire? Does the way its routed help reduce heating, and allow more current capacity? Does the fact that the current is DC produce less heating and allow for a greater current capacity?
Do you think we should look to increase the size of this breaker?