Any electricians? Tripping circuit?

reefsponge · Mar 23, 2014

So I have been coming home to my tank not running in my new residence. All the same equipment is being used that I had on a 15 amp circuit in my previous home.
In the current residence I am using 2 GFCI outlet receptacles on a 15 amp eaton AFCI breaker in the box. I have noticed the circuit to be tripping not to long after the 400w halide comes on.
An amp meter was placed at the breaker box with all electricity on and during the firing of the 400w halide. It peaked at just a little bit over 8 amps.
Where am I going wrong here? The ballast is fine, as my temporary solution is plugging the halide into another circuit. This is being done by a bright orange extension cord crossing the living space and my wife has been giving me the evil eye because of. Please help me solve this.

badfish2 · Mar 23, 2014

Is the AFCI breaker tripping and not the GFCI receptacle?

KSzegi · Mar 23, 2014

When I switched back over to the 400w halides .... had the same problem on a 20 amp breaker - even when only running the light on the circuit. Ended up having to replace the breaker with a non-gfi one .... only use it at the outlet now.

badfish2 · Mar 23, 2014

Is the breaker on a circuit dedicated for the tank?

Papadovak · Mar 23, 2014

Yea I think it's something with the gfci on the arc fault breaker you could change the arc fault breaker to a regular one as long as the ampacity is the same as the arc fault breaker

Papadovak · Mar 23, 2014

But the arc fault is super sensitive so maybe when the lamps kick on it trips the afci breaker

reefsponge · Mar 23, 2014

The GFCI is not tripping at the receptacle, it is the AFCI tripping the circuit at the breaker box.

The circuit is for the room, which is basically just the tank components and ceiling light for electrical.

By changing out the 15 amp AFCi at the breaker box for a single pole 15 amp breaker, is their any consequences I should be nervous about?

Papadovak · Mar 23, 2014

No I wouldn't worry about it. The afci is only used by if the 2011 electric code. We change them all the time bc people call us for their vacuum tripping the afci. Kind of pointless if you ask me

badfish2 · Mar 23, 2014

That could be really debated. Some people really like them for fire reasons.

GFCI should keep you and your tank safe. I personally wouldn't want AFCI on my tank because of phantom trips and how sensitive they are.

If your not running cheaper equipment like oddysea, I think you'll be fine pulling the AFCI offline. They didn't become code for bedroom wiring until mid 2000s.

Papadovak · Mar 23, 2014

+1 on the mid 2000s we only adopted it here recently...

badfish2 · Mar 23, 2014

Haha. Va was always a decade behind on adopting code too!! We were in 2005 a few months ago and just phasing into 2008 if I'm not mistaken.

reefsponge · Mar 23, 2014

Equipment is all decent equipment.

fanandy8 · Mar 30, 2014

We just did an addition to our house with two bedrooms had to put the arc fault breakers in and they trip all the time. I'm going to have a friend that's electrician come switch them for me. I'd just switch out the arc fault breaker for a regular one it prob won't trip anymore.

Reefing Madness · Mar 30, 2014

Old circuit breakers will trip out before hitting limit. Change the breaker out.

trido · Mar 30, 2014

Reefing Madness said:
Old circuit breakers will trip out before hitting limit. Change the breaker out.

That was my first thought too. An old breaker can get weak and trip long before it reaches capacity on rare occasion. I've replaced only three that were questionable in the last decade on different jobs. I definitely would change out an Arc Fault Breaker for any reef tank. A GFCI is plenty of protection and in some cases even then too sensitive for reef tank use. Lighting is sometimes one such case.

Reefing Madness · Mar 30, 2014

trido said:
That was my first thought too. An old breaker can get weak and trip long before it reaches capacity on rare occasion. I've replaced only three that were questionable in the last decade on different jobs. I definitely would change out an Arc Fault Breaker for any reef tank. A GFCI is plenty of protection and in some cases even then too sensitive for reef tank use. Lighting is sometimes one such case.

Totally agree with this.