tripping breaker

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Jeff Rae

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I have a single pole switch that controls a contactor that enegerizes a 100 amp panel. one ckt. feeds a set of track lighting that continuous to trip when contactor energizers the panel the track lighting ckt. is drawing 14.7 amps. when on. the breaker resets no problem. I have already replaced the breaker.
 
Is the track lighting low voltage? If so, then the tripping problem may be the result of transformer in-rush. This is especially true if the transfomer(s) is(are) considerably larger than needed.
 
ramdiesel3500 said:
Is the track lighting low voltage? If so, then the tripping problem may be the result of transformer in-rush. This is especially true if the transfomer(s) is(are) considerably larger than needed.
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If that were the case, wouldn't you have the same problem when you reset the breaker? :?
 
correct Me if I am wrong but would the transformer already have stored current so resetting the breaker would be possible :?
 
dlhoule
I agree with your view on this. A reset should trip as well!

Triphase
I would think any stored energy in the transformer would be drained by the lamp load.

So, lets brainstorm for a moment. If there is enough in-rush to the entire panel to cause a mechanical jerk of the bussway (small as it may be), it could assist the heavily loaded breaker to go ahead and trip. I would be tempted to try energizing the panel with the breaker off and then turn it on manually to see if it trips. If it does not trip, then I would try relocating the breaker to a different space in the panel where it might not see as much motion. At least this would be an inexpensive experiment. If it does trip, then Triphase may be on to something here!

Any other ideas out there?
 
triphase said:
correct Me if I am wrong but would the transformer already have stored current so resetting the breaker would be possible :?
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There is no device in existence that can store current, except perhaps some fancy physics laboratory electron accelerator something or other. But a transformer that has an iron core can have a residual magnetic field remaining in that core after the power is turned off. The presence of that field will have an influence on the start-up transient, the next time you turn the circuit on. So you may be on to something.
 
dlhoule said:
If that were the case, wouldn't you have the same problem when you reset the breaker? :?
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Good question. It leads me to ask the following: What else is powered by that 100 amp panel? Also, does it all turn on at the same time, when you throw the switch and energize the contactor, or do you have to manually turn on everything else on the 100 amp panel?

I am looking at the difference between turning everything on at once, and having the one breaker trip, as opposed to having everything else already on, and re-closing that one breaker. Perhaps a low-voltage transient caused by inrush current for a number of other loads on the same panel might be a player here.
 
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