Greetings and thanks for any help.
Do sign and parking lot lighting and once in a while we'll get a call for a breaker tripping a circuit of signs or parking lot lighting after an hour or more of running - not a dead short or immediate trip. We will usually break circuit in half, turn on and wait for trip. If trip, then know that side is culprit, break in half again, etc until we isolate problem. As an example, eight parking lot lights in a row, power coming in from left most pole. Disconnect 4 on right side. If left side trips breaker (after an hour in the heat) assume one of left side ballast failing and tripping out after overheating. Break same left side into now 2 fixtures connected to power and now six disconnected from power and continue to isolate until get to culprit.
Problem with this is #1 - the waiting between trips and #2 - once in a very long while go through whole test and nothing trips ie - reconnect all and does not trip out so you are stuck with a lot of hours and no fix. Could be breaker but would you just swap that out first without testing?
Any ideas - and again, thanks for any help.
Do sign and parking lot lighting and once in a while we'll get a call for a breaker tripping a circuit of signs or parking lot lighting after an hour or more of running - not a dead short or immediate trip. We will usually break circuit in half, turn on and wait for trip. If trip, then know that side is culprit, break in half again, etc until we isolate problem. As an example, eight parking lot lights in a row, power coming in from left most pole. Disconnect 4 on right side. If left side trips breaker (after an hour in the heat) assume one of left side ballast failing and tripping out after overheating. Break same left side into now 2 fixtures connected to power and now six disconnected from power and continue to isolate until get to culprit.
Problem with this is #1 - the waiting between trips and #2 - once in a very long while go through whole test and nothing trips ie - reconnect all and does not trip out so you are stuck with a lot of hours and no fix. Could be breaker but would you just swap that out first without testing?
Any ideas - and again, thanks for any help.