Circuit breaker

Factual Questions
1

I’m at my sister’s house. She just had a generator and generator panel installed. She had two space heaters temporarily plugged into separate outlets of the family room (she’s having work done on the furnace and it’s pretty cold here today). Well, the heaters tripped the circuit to that room (why she had two going at once… :rolleyes:).

Now my question: I reset the breaker at the main panel for that room (and removed the space heaters!). But the power is still out.

Looking at the new generator panel, I notice that there’s also a breaker on it for that room. Weird thing is that the breaker is in the halfway position. I can completely shut it off, but when trying to put it to ON, it wants to stay at the halfway point.

I’m going to see about getting the electrician back over today, but am curious as to what it means (I’d like to come off as somewhat intelligent).

Thanks!

2

Well, nevermind. I just tried flipping it off to on again, and now it works. Did it just need to sit for a bit?

Anyway, turns out she had 2 space heaters and some kind of sun lamp going (not tanning lamp, but mimics sunlight for mood). Heaters are gone!

3

How ironic that your username is Sparky! since that’s what I’m called on a daily basis, being an electrician.
I would suspect that you aren’t being aggressive enough with that breaker. Try turning it all the way off and then snapping it back to the on position. Some breakers need to have this done 3 or 4 times and with authority before they stay on. You may also have a clearance issue with the panel cover that won’t allow for the breaker to be fully seated in the on position once it has been tripped. I’ve seen a few mis-aligned panel covers in my day…

On edit, I see that’s probably what you ended up doing!

4

Is that Official Language for “smack it around a bit”?

:slight_smile:

5

Yep, or “kick the shit out of it”.

6

Or, the PC term, Percussive Maintenance.

7

Many breakers will act as described once thermally tripped. You were probably trying to re-engage prior to complete cooling.

8

Just wanted to add that I also have a generator and automatic transfer switch. The circuits that are powered by the generator no longer use the breakers in the main panel. They use the breakers mounted in the transfer switch. The breaker in the main panel, that you reset at first may not be connected to anything. :smiley:

9

Any time I have ever had to reset a CB, I always had to turn it off first, then re-engage it. This prevents an accidental re-engaging if you’re just going through the box looking for breakers that have tripped.

10

I used to know a really cool older guy that liked to hang out with younger high school kids that would get the jukebox at the local burger stand to start up like this.