620W Powersupply Trips my Breaker!

Adams · July 20, 2006, 11:20:16 AM

Well Hi All, (Note: this is a partial rant)

So I get this nice beast home plug everything in and boom it trips my breaker... so I think @%&#... I blew the power supply. Nope. I go and turn off everything in the room. Reset the breaker and try again... @%&# same deal. I get Annie (My wife) telling me our alarm clock went out. I figure thats odd since we have 3 bedrooms and the master bedroom shouldn't be on the same circut...

So I go and test all of the plugs upstairs with lamp. (The breaker is still off). All of the goddamned outlets are one the same 15 amp breaker... no wonder why I blew the breaker. I take the powersupply downstairs and test it... boom boots up not a problem. Well @%&# a duck, these @%&# bag electricians cut corners. Sorry for the language I am getting frustrated with my builder they are trying to screw me out of my landscaping deposit. Thats for another day...

Now I am trying to find some kind of electrical code that tells me how many outlets should be on 1 - 15amp breaker... any one know. oh yea its a Enermax 620W - 9A PSU. Quite nice... to bad it blew my breaker every time I use it upstairs.

That is all my peeps. If you can think of anything please help

Spanks

Lazybones · July 20, 2006, 11:25:39 AM

It is somewhere between 10 and 15 for Alberta I think.. I noticed this in my new place as well.. All my upstairs plugs are on the same one.. Only noticed after trying to vacuum, with my PCs, two window fans and my AC on.

A 620W PSU it self should not be what is tripping the breaker.. The 630W rating is simply how much it can handle.. It is the sum of the components you attach to the PSU that determines how much power you are drawing.

Depending how they wired your place you might be able to get them to split the lines to different breakers at the panel if they did more than one of the runs down to there.. if it is all the same run there isn't much you can do.

Adams · July 20, 2006, 11:30:32 AM

Well I can truefully tell yea the old 450W PSW handled the components... so one would assume... 620 > 450

I would hope it can handle it... 2X 7900GT, 3800X2, A8N SLI Premium, 4x 80GB HDD, 1 DVD Burner.

It just chafes my ass chaps that they do that now... the US has the code 5 per 15 amp breaker... so thats pretty good.

Lazybones · July 20, 2006, 11:44:29 AM

Quote from: Adams on July 20, 2006, 11:30:32 AM
Well I can truefully tell yea the old 450W PSW handled the components... so one would assume... 620 > 450

Was the PSU the only component you upgraded, because it shouldn't be drawing that much more power with the same components attached. I have a power meter, you can get them at Canadian Tire... My PC with a 400W PSU only draws around 250W when under load.

However it is the Amps that will pop the breaker and Watts are a combination of Volts and Amps. It can be tricky to figure things out if you don't have all of the values.

Cova · July 20, 2006, 02:21:47 PM

I'm not sure what the code specifies for the max number of outlets or anything like that - but I would have expected 1 breaker for every bedroom in your house - each one would have the light fixture for that bedroom and a handful of outlets.

Adams · July 20, 2006, 02:54:55 PM

Well I did find out its 12 Connections Per 15 Amp breaker but thats max... and most people leave it to 10 or so.

I will probably pick up that Power Meter from Canadian Tire, check out what I am pulling down... I perhaps save my self 189 buckaroos.

Lazybones · July 20, 2006, 03:16:36 PM

Quote from: Cova on July 20, 2006, 02:21:47 PM
I'm not sure what the code specifies for the max number of outlets or anything like that - but I would have expected 1 breaker for every bedroom in your house - each one would have the light fixture for that bedroom and a handful of outlets.

Actually talking with a few electricians the preferred method is to keep the lights and plugs on different breakers and runs. This helps prevent dimming of the lights when a high draw device is connected to an outlet as well as keeps the lights on when you blow the breaker from a plugged in device so you can see what you are doing. Another benefit is that you can plug in a work light into an outlet while you rewire lighting fixtures with the lighting breaker turned off.

However the code simply states X connections per 15 Amp breaker, so it is up to the individual wiring the place if they want to mix lights and outlets.

Thorin · July 20, 2006, 08:42:41 PM

Hmm, if I ever get a house built I'll be specifying in the contract with the builder exactly how the electrical should be hooked up. If I ever get a house built

Gotta have the money first...

Thorin · July 20, 2006, 08:56:46 PM

I can't believe they're charging for accessing copies of the bloody electrical code nowadays. You'd think making an electronic copy of a code accessible would be a good idea - people would be able to check whether their house is getting built properly instead of it burning down because of overloading. how many hundreds of thousands of dollars would that save the governments?

Adams · July 21, 2006, 08:24:30 AM

Alot in the long run... but they are looking at the short term... 10K or so to get that book transcribed to pdf... so they don't look that far ahead. Oh well what you gonna do.