50A breaker for range will trip, BUT, only during periods of heavy, extended rainfall.
House is off-grade, early 1900’s 2 storey frame with brick facade. Panel is on interior wall with approx. 10′ max wire run that includes 4’down from panel, under floor framing and back up into wall behind range. No apparent leaks.
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Replies
Your range was not designed to heat the house during those rainy cool periods in wintertime FL? <G>
What is the brand and vintage of the breaker panel. Some of the older panels used linen phenolic insulating plates that can absorb moisture which leads to surface arcing, arcing enought to trip a breaker, the heat from the arc dries it out but is not enought to cause serious carbon tracking - only thing I can think of right off, or other humidity sensitve insulator in the system.
can you (hear) any sizzling at the panel anytime the range is on ?.
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Edited 5/20/2009 3:23 pm by maddog3
I don't know enough about electricity, but maybe it has something to do with bad ground rods? Saturated earth causing a short circuit? Don't know why that would trip just the range though.
"I don't know enough about electricity, but maybe it has something to do with bad ground rods? Saturated earth causing a short circuit? I don't know enough about electricity, but maybe it has something to do with bad ground rods? Saturated earth causing a short circuit? "The problem has nothing to do with the ground rods being "good" or not unless there are several other serious problems going on. Such as a bad neutral and a ground fault in the range or wiring.And then it you would notice more serious problems of lights burning extra bright or dim and stuff burning out.Under normal conditions the ground electrode system does not have any current flowing in it, good or bad ground.BTW, the current code says that if ground rods are used then you can either use one and test it and if it does not measure less than 25 ohms you need 2. The test is not typically done and 2 or used and the resistance is never tested and it might be much higher than 25 ohms. At 25 ohms if you had a dead short to ground you would still only have less than 5 amps going through the ground..
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
Perhaps there is significant deterioratione of the insulation and moisture is present in sufficient quantity to "complete the path" (to equipment grounding conductor-or to metal frame of range) and therefore cause large amounts of current to flow and trip breaker.
In this senario one might expect a small but nominal current to flow between one conductor and another conductor in that same cable at all times. It would be higher during periods of higher moisture.
Obtain or have an electrician place current probe around all conductors in the cable to see if there is a path to ground.
This is just a guess, with nothing else to go on.
Ralph,
Is there a different pattern of use for the range during the bad weather?
Are there 240V electric heaters supplied from circuit breakers surrounding the range CB?
Does the range have a ground fault? What is the grounding and bonding configuration for the service? It takes a lot of fault current to trip a 50A breaker - impedance to ground for 50A of current is just 2.4 ohms. Perhaps a wet driven ground rod has less and when dry more.
Jim x 3
If this was on a boat, I would venture a first guess as corrosion at some connection. Damp conditions seem to make corrosion more of a problem there.
I would open all connections at panel/breaker and at connection to the range -- you might find a bad one - clean and reconnect. With that short of a cable run, I am assuming there are no JB's involved.
You will laugh, but look for spider webs in the vicinity of the connections - they seem to conduct pretty well when damp.
Have you measured actual current draw when the range is "on"? If not, I would look at that first. Clamp on ammeter at the breaker. Could the breaker be "tired" and tripping at some lower amperage?
Out of bright ideas.......
Jim
Had that happen in an old house for a while, then 1/2 the range went out, along with !/2 the house lights. Turned out the cloth insulated line from the main to the 60 amp glass fused sub-panel was laying on the dirt in the crawl ( actually a no-crawl at 8-12" tall). One leg shorted when it rained, and it was like a 12g wire<G>http://www.tvwsolar.com
Now I wish I could give Brother Bill his great thrill
I would set him in chains at the top of the hill
Then send out for some pillars and Cecil B. DeMille
He could die happily ever after"