My wife’s bedroom and the kitchen are on separate circuit breakers. She has her space heater on all the time, and usually her light. When I use the stove, the circuit breaker to her bedroom will flip, but not the kitchen breaker. I turn off her heater and reset the breaker, and all is well. This doesn’t make sense to me. If they’re on separate circuits, why would the stove cause her power to go out?
Whatever the reason, it’s not good.
The stove should be on its’ own 50A circuit. If this is true, and it’s causing another breaker to trip, that means that something really wacky is going on, like a loose neutral, or something really bad, like a shared neutral. Is the breaker that’s tripping a GFCI or AFCI?
I don’t know what kind of breaker it is. We had the kitchen rewired two or three years ago, I think.
Oh… The stove doesn’t lose power, nor the kitchen.
I’m not an alarmist, but I think it’s a serious enough issue that you should get someone to diagnose it.
It’s so unusual, that it might fall into the “burn your house down” category. The mere fact that one circuit is affecting another one is enough to make my spicy-sense tingle.
Gas or electric stove?
Wires are crossed somewhere. maybe a neutral problem. Someone will need to take amp readings,
Do you use the vent hood while cooking? It may be on the same circuit as the bedroom. Does it shut down?
Does the range have any accessories that are plugged into a regular plug? That may be on the bedroom circuit?
A 1600 Watt heater can be drawing about 13 Amps. If any kitchen outlets are on the same branch, appliance operation may trip it. Is the bedroom near the kitchen? They may have snuck a line over. As others noted the range will be on a completely separate breaker. Not even the neutral should have been shared as the cable would have to have been broken out at some point to do that. If you had the place rewired your kitchen outlets should not be shared. But maybe the vent hood might have been? A cheap thing for the electrician to do.
I am not an expert. But have completely rewired two of my own homes and passed inspection. So I at least know the normal average stuff.
Electric.
I think it’s 1500 w, but she keeps it on the lower setting (600 w? 700 w?). The bedroom is on the other side of the wall from the kitchen. Only the kitchen was re-wired when we replaced the fuze box with the breaker board.
Not at the times the problem occurs. No accessories.
That’s what I was thinking, since a neutral might be the only thing the circuits have in common. But I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Neutrals don’t get monitored for over-current, which is why it is so important to keep them strictly paired with their corresponding hot(s) (not commingled), and sized properly.
Does the tripping bedroom breaker have a “test” button? If it’s an arc-fault breaker, it may be detecting arcing in the stove circuitry. AFCI breakers are supposed to monitor and protect the load side, but it’s not really possible to isolate things perfectly and sometimes they “hear” arcs on other circuits in the house.
Does the trip always happen immediately, or is it sort of random? Does it happen only with certain burners? Or burners vs. the oven?
If your stove is electric there should be no connection to any other circuit and it should not have any effect to any other circuit.
here is how the wiring should have been done.
For the stove At the electrical panel there should be two large colored wires connected to a 50 amp double pole breaker, a large white breaker connected to the neutral bus bar, and a large green wire connected to ground buss. These 4 wires should run straight to the outlet in the kitchen where the stove is plugged in. No wires should be connected to these wires at any place.
For the Bathroom outlet at the electrical panel there should be one colored wire connected to a breaker, one white wire connected to the neutral bus, and one green wire connected to the ground buss. These wires may go straight to bathroom or from to another outlet then to the bathroom outlet. This outlet probably is a GFIC outlet and all 3 wires connected to it. If the outlet is not a GFIC outlet then the circuit breaker should be a GFI breaker. If the breaker is a GFI breaker then at the panel the white wire will be connected to the breaker and the white wire from the breaker will go to the neutral buss.
The only point where the wiring from the stove and the bathroom have a common point is the electrical panel.
There is the possibility if the breaker is a GFI breaker is getting a little flakey. Try plugging in a lamp in the bathroom outlet and turning on the stove to see if the breaker still trips.
It is possible that the higher load is causing a voltage reduction, and some appliances can compensate by taking more amps which could trip the breaker . I think an electric heater may, as the lower voltage would run cooler, thus increasing the current. I’d check the voltage in the bedroom to see if there is a change when the oven is on / off. Also if the lights dim a bit with a heavy load that could be the issue.
I’ve seem somewhat similar circumstances when one circuit breaker is installed adjacent to another. It’s usually a 50A next to a 15A, or something like that. The 15A will be running at high load (maybe 13A) and then the 50A is used for a stove or heater. The additional heat generated by the 50A is just enough to warm up the thermal element in the 15A a bit too much and cause it to trip. The 15A may already be “weak.”
Separating the two breakers, which is usually pretty easy, solves the problem.
I would like to know if this is the explanation. Is there a free 15A breaker you could use?
The bedroom is 20A. The breaker above it (crossed out descriptor) is 15A. The 50A breakers are a few up.