Why does a fuse blow every night when I'm asleep?

Question

In my mom's house, me and my sister's rooms are the only two rooms upstairs. If we have to many things running, a fuse is blown. For example, if we both have space heaters running in our rooms, the circuit breaker trips. The past few nights while we're sleeping, a fuse has been blowing and it's really annoying because the surge protector on my computer beeps until I go down into the basement and flip the switch to turn the power back on. I thought maybe my sister had her heater running, but she never does. We have varioud things plugged into the sockets, but the only things really turned "on" that use up power is my heater and the charger plugged into my SideKick. Do you think those two would blow a fuse? My old phone's charger never contributed to that. Sorry this was like a novel, but its as short as possible!

Answer 1

Most importantly, tripping a circuit breaker over and over again is a serious problem.

Circuit breakers do wear out when they are continuosly tripped.

However the more important thing is that two 1500 watt space heaters CANNOT EVER run on the same circuit.

The rating of the breaker is stamped into it (15 or 20 usually) this is the amperage (or current) that can safely "run" through the wires in the wall. You can calculate how much current you are "pulling".
All appliances list the current in "A" or Amps or "W" Wattage. To find the amperage if it lists wattage, divide the wattage by the voltage ( normal two prong, or two prong with ground outlet is 110V in the US, UK I know is different and many other countries) add all amps from the appliances on the one circuit breaker, this will tell you if your breaker is bad or you have too many appliances, and if the breaker is 15Amps do not run more than 12 to 13 amps on a constant basis, 15 is the max. at which the breaker "breaks".

Example 2 1500 Watt space heaters running at the same time is....1=1500/110=13.63A...
2= 27.27 A.

The breaker and household wiring will never handle this current (it's a fire hazard), also turn off only that breaker, and go to every outlet in the house an see if it is working, a small lamp or radio which you can carry in your had to the outlets not in use makes this easy, there can be an outlet anywhere in the house that runs on that line, don't forget clocks,and light bulbs, a 100W bulb= .9Amps ( point 9) many appliances pull power when not in use, TV's VCR's Stereos, and anything that uses a remote control, it all adds up. You should contact an electrician.

You may need to add an additional breaker and power wires, which will require an electrician. This is typical in older homes when people had 1 TV, 1 refridgerator, etc.
(excuse any typo's, spell check not working)

Answer 2

Lauren, your heater alone could be the culprit, but you could also have a short somewhere in your house that's causing the breaker to trip.

Has it ever tripped when no heaters are plugged in? Heaters draw a heavy current load, so they are always suspects, but there could be other causes.

Either way, it sounds to me like you and your sister need the space heaters so I'd say get your mom to get a professional electrician involved to find the problem. Beyond doing some basic detective work to find obvious causes, electrical problems are nothing to mess around with and they shouldn't be ignored.

Most likely the pro will both find the current problem and recommend that you add additional circuits to your upstairs so that the bedrooms can handle space heaters and more without tripping a breaker. This does cost money, but the safety and peace of mind is worth it.

Grouse

Answer 3

Fuses and breakers are both overcurrent devices. They are protecting the wire from too much heat buildup and shuts off the electricity as a safety feature. If you are having the nuisance outages, you need to reduce the draw on that circuit by unplugging other devices on that circuit.

Even if your computer isn't on, it is still drawing power and it may be just enough to trip the breaker. Space heaters require a lot of current so everything else on that circuit should be removed if it isn't absolutely necessary.

That's the cheap fix, the expensive fix is to have an electrician come in and upgrade your wiring/circuit.

Answer 4

Your problem is that you may have to much plugged in:
Even if its not "on," most electric appliances still draw power.

For instance, when your computer, printer, and TV are off, they still draw power. Same to phones, blenders, toaster ovens, pretty much anything.

One thing you could do is replace the fuse entirely with a heavier fuse. Get a pro to tell you how.

Also, how old is the house? The house's wiring? It could be a short is forming someplace and knocking out the breaker.

Answer 5

Space heaters require high amps. Try putting the space heaters on different fuses. You may need to turn on/off until you find outlets that are on different circuits.

Answer 6

First of all you should chick on your Electricity wires and see how much power it can load also the fuse load .
Having tow space heaters ! that too much presser on the wires and the fuse .
you have to slow down the power and to change the fuses to More ability fuses and the wires too .

Answer 7

"If we have to many things running, a fuse is blown."

You answered your own question.

Have a LICENSED electrical contractor install a couple of new 20amp circuits for you. Each electric heater on their own circuit will stop the tripping.

Answer 8

if that fuse doent blow than the wires will melt and short out and you'll be in a fire your circut needs to be upgraded for the one circut wouldnt cost that much

Answer 9

Its a conspiracy