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Fuse Blew Out - need help!

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Nov 11, 2009
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Fuse Blew Out - need help!

Hello,

Before I begin, I have almost zero knowledge or experience with these electrical problems, so hopefully if you guys could maybe make it so that any beginner could understand any of the complex terms or instructions, that would be really appreciated!

Our fuse blew out at home and now there is no electricity in the living room due to the overpowering air conditioner that we bought about a day ago. There is power on the refrigerator and microwave because I believe they are on separate circuits(?). There's electricity in the house elsewhere, but no power especially for the lights in the living room.

What do we do to fix this mess? We have a fuse box and have checked the fuses. There is one that is not ticked upwards like all the other switches and when we try to bring it back up, it immediately goes back into the off position.

Can anyone please help! I can add pictures if necessary! Please help!
Here are some pictures
[IMG]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21644646/IMG650.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21644646/IMG651.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21644646/IMG654.jpg[/IMG]

Here are some pictures of the entire panel (edited again)

[IMG]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21644646/IMG655.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21644646/IMG656.jpg[/IMG]
28 replies
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Mar 28, 2008
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When you say "fuses" I think you mean breakers, as in levers/switches with on/off positions? Have you tried turning that one all the way to the OFF position, then back to ON? Try unplugging/turning off everything that's on that circuit and then try turning the breaker OFF then ON. Let me know what happens
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Jan 27, 2006
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duffman2003 wrote: Hello,

Before I begin, I have almost zero knowledge or experience with these electrical problems, so hopefully if you guys could maybe make it so that any beginner could understand any of the complex terms or instructions, that would be really appreciated!

Our fuse blew out at home and now there is no electricity in the living room due to the overpowering air conditioner that we bought about a day ago. There is power on the refrigerator and microwave because I believe they are on separate circuits(?). There's electricity in the house elsewhere, but no power especially for the lights in the living room.

What do we do to fix this mess? We have a fuse box and have checked the fuses. There is one that is not ticked upwards like all the other switches and when we try to bring it back up, it immediately goes back into the off position.

Can anyone please help! I can add pictures if necessary! Please help!
Those "fuses" that you are referring are actually circuit breakers. The circuit breaker is not in the off position right now, it's in the "tripped" position (mid-way between on and off). To reset a circuit breaker, turn the circuit breaker to off by moving the switch all the way downward, wait a second or two, and then turn it to on by pushing the switch all the way upwards. Before you do this, please turn off all of the appliances connected to the circuit.
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Unplug the A/C. Push the "blown" fuse OFF, then ON. Power to the living room will then be restored.

Might need to get an extension cord to plug the A/C into another circuit. The current living room circuit could be use to a high capacity already (ie. TV is already on the circuit).
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Thanks a lot for the replies you guys! You guys are truly amazing! I will try that out tonight and get back to whoever answers the post hopefully more people have similar situations. Anyone else have any recommendations please let me know! All help appreciated!
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Busybuyer888 wrote: Unplug the A/C. Push the "blown" fuse OFF, then ON. Power to the living room will then be restored.

Might need to get an extension cord to plug the A/C into another circuit. The current living room circuit could be use to a high capacity already (ie. TV is already on the circuit).
The manual said not to get an extension circuit and use direct outlets I believe.

Also one question, in the likelyhood that this were to occur again, would the result be the same or would it be more damaging?
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craftsman wrote: Those "fuses" that you are referring are actually circuit breakers. The circuit breaker is not in the off position right now, it's in the "tripped" position (mid-way between on and off). To reset a circuit breaker, turn the circuit breaker to off by moving the switch all the way downward, wait a second or two, and then turn it to on by pushing the switch all the way upwards. Before you do this, please turn off all of the appliances connected to the circuit.
Mostly correct, except OFF isn't necessarily down and ON up...it could be opposite or side to side.

I don't see pictures?
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duffman2003 wrote: The manual said not to get an extension circuit and use direct outlets I believe.

Also one question, in the likelyhood that this were to occur again, would the result be the same or would it be more damaging?
An extension cord is not recommended because of voltage drop (high current of the A/C) and hazard. If you do HAVE to use one, use a good quality and 14 or 12 gauge/AWG of the shortest length that will work.

If it happens again, the result should be about the same. Doing it multiple times could eventually weaken/wear out the breaker and could be hard on the equipment running.
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How long was the AC running before it tripped? What's the size of A/C

I see your pictures now. That breaker is tripped so move it right then left (by the picture). But, those breakers are quad breakers and don't work good for high current circuits, they aren't meant for that. Looks like whoever put them in used a bunch. Is that panel newer or older? Is there empty spaces for more breakers?
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got a picture of the whole panel?
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duffman2003 wrote: The manual said not to get an extension circuit and use direct outlets I believe.

Also one question, in the likelyhood that this were to occur again, would the result be the same or would it be more damaging?
I am assuming OP doesn't want to reposition the A/C to another room where the circuit is less loaded.

Without repositioning the A/C, then an extension cord is needed. Get a quality one. I've run those old A/Cs on extension cords - quality extension cord though.
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Yup, just flip the tripped breaker to the right then back to the left.

I think the general recommendation is to put the A/C on a separate circuit. The label on the A/C should say how much current it needs. I actually still have a fuse box and have time-delay fuses on the A/C circuit. I'm not sure if there's an equivalent of that for breaker-based systems.

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Breakers by their very nature are much slower to trip than fuses so a time delay is really not needed.
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sprdave wrote: Mostly correct, except OFF isn't necessarily down and ON up...it could be opposite or side to side.

I don't see pictures?
I used up and down due to the orientation of stated by the OP who said "There is one that is not ticked upwards like all the other switches and when we try to bring it back up....". Since the OP stated that he wanted easy to follow instructions, I tailored the instructions to him.
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sprdave wrote: How long was the AC running before it tripped? What's the size of A/C

I see your pictures now. That breaker is tripped so move it right then left (by the picture). But, those breakers are quad breakers and don't work good for high current circuits, they aren't meant for that. Looks like whoever put them in used a bunch. Is that panel newer or older? Is there empty spaces for more breakers?
We actually just got the AC yesterday and ran it for a little while before turning it off because the weather was quite chilly for that day. The size of the AC is quite high 14,000 BTU. The manual said this: Use an 115V, 15Amp outlet for the air conditioner. Do not use any other electrical appliances on this line or you may trip the fuse. Use a dedicated line for this air conditioner. The panel is quite old, I don't know the history behind it sorry. I'm not sure about the empty spaces as there are 2 more slots that are covered with a black cover. I'll upload a picture of the entire thing for you to see so you can get a better look. It'll be in the first post.

What bustybuyer is saying is right about the re-positioning of the unit. We live in a small place so the living room is the only place that has windows for ventilation of the unit (since it's such a heavy duty unit).
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In addition to my problem (which I fixed due to the simple instructions you awesome cats have provided) I have a few more.

1) In m picture there are 2 slots covered up. Are these extra slots? Because of the power of this beast, the lot of you have recommended to use a dedicated circuit and I think that is the best possible solution for something this powerful. How would one do this? Is a hired tech the way to go or is this simple enough to go about ourselves.

2) The outlet as we discovered is connected to the kitchen and living room lights as well as the TV and the problem was because of an overuse of turning on the lights in these areas. How much energy do lights use? We had our lights turned on but they weren't connected to the same outlet as the air conditioner (nothing was connected to this outlet when we used it yesterday) and when we connected a light to the same outlet and turned it on the problem occurred.

Trying to figure a solution to this problem because if not we can still refund it, but would rather not as it's quite heavy to bring back and move around.

Many thanks thus far,

Duff
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duffman2003 wrote: We actually just got the AC yesterday and ran it for a little while before turning it off because the weather was quite chilly for that day. The size of the AC is quite high 14,000 BTU. The manual said this: Use an 115V, 15Amp outlet for the air conditioner. Do not use any other electrical appliances on this line or you may trip the fuse. Use a dedicated line for this air conditioner. The panel is quite old, I don't know the history behind it sorry. I'm not sure about the empty spaces as there are 2 more slots that are covered with a black cover. I'll upload a picture of the entire thing for you to see so you can get a better look. It'll be in the first post.

What bustybuyer is saying is right about the re-positioning of the unit. We live in a small place so the living room is the only place that has windows for ventilation of the unit (since it's such a heavy duty unit).
You need to find an outlet which is not shared with anything in the room. You may need to test the breakers one by one.
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duffman2003 wrote: In addition to my problem (which I fixed due to the simple instructions you awesome cats have provided) I have a few more.

1) In m picture there are 2 slots covered up. Are these extra slots? Because of the power of this beast, the lot of you have recommended to use a dedicated circuit and I think that is the best possible solution for something this powerful. How would one do this? Is a hired tech the way to go or is this simple enough to go about ourselves.
To do it right, you need to hire an electrician to run a line from the breaker box to the place you want to put the AC. That costs money.
2) The outlet as we discovered is connected to the kitchen and living room lights as well as the TV and the problem was because of an overuse of turning on the lights in these areas. How much energy do lights use? We had our lights turned on but they weren't connected to the same outlet as the air conditioner (nothing was connected to this outlet when we used it yesterday) and when we connected a light to the same outlet and turned it on the problem occurred.

Trying to figure a solution to this problem because if not we can still refund it, but would rather not as it's quite heavy to bring back and move around.

Many thanks thus far,

Duff
A circuit breaker usually covers more than one outlet. You need to figure out what the breaker covers.
Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. -- Will Smith
Growing older is mandatory. Growing up is optional.
Stay hungry, stay foolish.
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craftsman wrote: I used up and down due to the orientation of stated by the OP who said "There is one that is not ticked upwards like all the other switches and when we try to bring it back up....". Since the OP stated that he wanted easy to follow instructions, I tailored the instructions to him.
My bad, I was trying to clarify as the description was mixed up.
duffman2003 wrote: In addition to my problem (which I fixed due to the simple instructions you awesome cats have provided) I have a few more.

1) In m picture there are 2 slots covered up. Are these extra slots? Because of the power of this beast, the lot of you have recommended to use a dedicated circuit and I think that is the best possible solution for something this powerful. How would one do this? Is a hired tech the way to go or is this simple enough to go about ourselves.

2) The outlet as we discovered is connected to the kitchen and living room lights as well as the TV and the problem was because of an overuse of turning on the lights in these areas. How much energy do lights use? We had our lights turned on but they weren't connected to the same outlet as the air conditioner (nothing was connected to this outlet when we used it yesterday) and when we connected a light to the same outlet and turned it on the problem occurred.

Trying to figure a solution to this problem because if not we can still refund it, but would rather not as it's quite heavy to bring back and move around.

Many thanks thus far,

Duff
So resetting the breaker worked? Does it work okay if nothing else is on?

A 14000 btu a/c is large for a window/standard outlet. It probably uses like 12-14amps which is about the max of a standard circuit. It basically needs it's own circuit if you want one that large.

Those 2 slots are typically spare spaces for breakers, so yes you could add a separate circuit. But it's not simple, and going by you having "zero knowledge" and asking these questions, not something you can do. You would need an electrician.

How much energy do lights use? I think you are wanting how much current/amps they draw in regards to tripping the breaker. The actual energy would be close to the watt rating on the bulb. For amps, depends on what bulbs (incandescent or cfl) and how many. An incandescent 100watt bulb would draw like 1 amp, or a 13-26watt cfl would draw like 0.25-0.5 amp.

If you're looking for an existing outlet on it's own breaker, the dining area outlet(s) should be on their own, or the laundry room (if you have one). Looks like there's four circuits for the kitchen counter. Or if you have a microwave outlet. You just can't use the microwave or washing machine at the same time if you're using those. And the kitchen ones aren't very convenient. Just make sure if you use a cord, that you get a heavy one, that's 14awg (gauge) or 12awg would be even better. Don't use a 16awg one.
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sprdave wrote: My bad, I was trying to clarify as the description was mixed up.



So resetting the breaker worked? Does it work okay if nothing else is on?

A 14000 btu a/c is large for a window/standard outlet. It probably uses like 12-14amps which is about the max of a standard circuit. It basically needs it's own circuit if you want one that large.

Those 2 slots are typically spare spaces for breakers, so yes you could add a separate circuit. But it's not simple, and going by you having "zero knowledge" and asking these questions, not something you can do. You would need an electrician.

How much energy do lights use? I think you are wanting how much current/amps they draw in regards to tripping the breaker. The actual energy would be close to the watt rating on the bulb. For amps, depends on what bulbs (incandescent or cfl) and how many. An incandescent 100watt bulb would draw like 1 amp, or a 13-26watt cfl would draw like 0.25-0.5 amp.

If you're looking for an existing outlet on it's own breaker, the dining area outlet(s) should be on their own, or the laundry room (if you have one). Looks like there's four circuits for the kitchen counter. Or if you have a microwave outlet. You just can't use the microwave or washing machine at the same time if you're using those. And the kitchen ones aren't very convenient. Just make sure if you use a cord, that you get a heavy one, that's 14awg (gauge) or 12awg would be even better. Don't use a 16awg one.
Yep your methods and the other people who suggested it, worked flawlessly! Thanks a lot! We unplugged all the lights/turned off and switched it back on without any problems. We actually found out that there is actually a separate circuit for the A/C that was used precisely for that function when we had one (it was old and when we replaced our windows, we didn't put it back in) so we are now plugging it into that and using it using that with its own circuit.

Once again thanks a lot for your help. Hopefully nothing else goes wrong, now that we found a dedicated circuit for this beast. Have a pleasant day!

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