Help: New Ballast blowing the fuse

[bigshrimp]

Could an overloaded main cause just one of the circuits breakers to trip?

I've got a real old house and have just ended up running dedicated lines for my rooms. A 30amp on 220v for lighting, and a 30amp on 110v AC - dehuey - space heaters. The original circiut only runs fans at this point.

If you own the house, running a seperate line might be the best option, unless you literally want to tear your walls apart chasing some jackasses wiring job.

 

[Shcrews]

i've had some weird things happen with digital ballasts... sometimes you just need to swap it out for a new one. thats what warranties are for.

and why is this in the "advanced botany" forum?

 

[rives]

Could an overloaded main cause just one of the circuits breakers to trip?

I've got a real old house and have just ended up running dedicated lines for my rooms. A 30amp on 220v for lighting, and a 30amp on 110v AC - dehuey - space heaters. The original circiut only runs fans at this point.

If you own the house, running a seperate line might be the best option, unless you literally want to tear your walls apart chasing some jackasses wiring job.

An overloaded main shouldn't be capable of doing that, no.

I hope that you have some downstream protection breaking those 30a circuits down further - if they are feeding 15/20a receptacles and cordsets, you are setting yourself up for big problems.

 

[bigshrimp]

They are both run on 12gauge wire direct from breaker.

The 220v hits an intermatic timer (the 240v water heater one) and then to 16 gauge wire to the ballasts.

I'm not sure about what you mean about the receptacles though, here are some pics.

 

[rives]

12 gauge wire is only good for 20 amps, not 30. 16 gauge wire is usually rated for around 12 amps. Each of those receptacles, cord caps and connector bodies in the pictures are rated for 15 amps. If you have them on 30a breakers, you are protecting the breaker by using the downstream components for fuses - the breaker should be the lowest-rated component in the circuit so that it protects everything downstream. You have a potentially dangerous installation, and if you do have a fire, it is so far out of code compliance that any insurance company will simply walk away.

 

[bigshrimp]

Thank you rives, you are invaluable. I'm going to check all the ratings on everything to be sure i'm correct.

 

[rives]

Holler if I can be of any help.

 

[bigshrimp]

Ok so the 110v and 220v are both on 10 gauge wire. The 110 is run to a box which is fuse protected - so i think that that is ok.

I checked out the 220 and the receptacles are rated for 20amp. So still a problem.

So my options are to drop the 220v line to a 20amp breaker, or get a 20amp fuse protected box/subpanel to wire into the line?

 

[rives]

The fuse protection on the 110 box is downstream from the too-light receptacle, plug, and cord. If you have a problem in or after the box, you should be ok, but the receptacle, etc are the weak points. A loose connection at the receptacle, damaged cord, etc are not protected by the downstream fusing.

On the 220v, you could either change the breaker out to a 20a or change out the receptacle to a 30a and use a 30a cordset to power your Intermatic timer. The timer could then use 10 gauge wire to feed a small subpanel that would further break the protection down - ie, set a couple of 15a breakers in the sub and feed the lighting individually from there.

 

[jimmyd42]

The ACFI now also pops with the old setup, where only 1 lamp is on. So my assumptions were wrong.

 

[rives]

Clarify this for me - was the AFCI retrofitted into an existing house, or is this a new enough house that the AFCI was installed when it was built? It sounds to me like something else is diddling it, but it could also just be a sensitive breaker. I've read that AFCI's have problems with HID lighting and have been interested to try mine out and see if it works, but just haven't gotten to it yet. You might check and see if the lamp is snug in the socket - if it is loose and arcing inside, the breaker is doing exactly what it is supposed to.

It would be easy enough to try a conventional breaker in it's place. The neutral that is attached to the AFCI would be moved to the neutral buss, and then the breaker just exchanged with a conventional one.

 

[bigshrimp]

Added 20a fuse box straight to the 220 line, then ran that to the existing receptacles.

In the future i may feed the timers directly and then run panels off that, but for now i just wanted to get this safe.

 

[jimmyd42]

Still trying to diagnose whats going on by switching out equipment.

The AFCI now pops with the setup that has been good for some time.

I am worried that the AFCI is trying to tell me that there is an actual problem with the equip.

Sadly it takes a day to test combinations of equipment shut off as the fuse sometimes pops every 5 minutes, sometimes every other day.

So far I can say for sure that it is not:

- the new digital ballast
- the timer attached with the HID
- the power strips and cords

So it focuses more and more on the electrics in the house and the magnetic ballast/lamp itself.

Yes, the electrics is all new and installed in 2009, including everything: receptacles, lines, the circuit breaker box, etc. From what I have seen, the quality is low-mid range, probably decent for regional standards. But ofc, I cant look inside the walls, so who knows.

I am a bit puzzled what to do now and worried that my ballast could cause a fire?

 

[rives]

Is there another AFCI-protected circuit available that you could swing the load to? That would tell you if there is something going on that you haven't found yet or if there is a problem with that circuit. It could be a bad cord, a loose lamp in the lamp socket, or anything that creates an arc. To check for an internal cord break, take the cord in both hand and progressively wiggle the entire length of the cord. Pay close attention to anywhere that the cord makes a tight bend. Track down whatever else the circuit may feed - it is unlikely that the breaker only feeds the receptacle that the grow gear is plugged into, and the problem could be in anything that the circuit feeds.

 

[Scottish Research]

Sounds like your amperage is too small.



R.Fortune

 

[mojave green]

I've read that AFCI's have problems with HID lighting...

As have I read such. I however, have experienced no problems with my arc faults and HID lighting.

 

[jimmyd42]

Ok, we tried all combinations, it seems to be a problem with the magnetic ballast or some lose component (lamp correctly screwed in?) or whatever...

There is nothing in that room atm anyway so we will just take everything apart in the next weeks and put it back together. Gonna keep this thread in the bookmarks and keep u guys up to date.

Thanks for all the help so far, esp rives!