Breaker flipping from 400w ballast

Hello everyone! I'm getting ready to start my first grow and I'm running into an issue with my breaker flipping from my ballast turning on.

Last night I received my ballast (apollo 400w kit from amazon) and plugged it in to test it. The mh bulb it came with flashed on and then off and stayed off. I turned the surge protector off and back on and everything fired up fine. I left it on for about 10 minutes and everything seemed fine so I shut it off. I then tried turning it back on about an hour later and I heard the ballast come on for a second and then it flipped my breaker. I tried a couple different times and it flipped the breaker every time. I tried a Sylvania mh bulb to see if it might have something to do with the bulb but there was no change.

I'm using a 15A breaker and during the initial test where the light was working I had my closet (grow room) light on and my bedroom light on. Every attempt where the breaker flipped I had only my bedroom light on. The ballast is plugged into just a basic $5 surge protector from Walmart.

Any ideas? I really appreciate any help.

Firstly, I don't think the cheap surge protector is helping and anytime I've ordered a timer it was one rated for a higher rating.

Sounds like your fuse is running a lot more than you think. Maybe not. But does that breaker turn off another bedroom or room of some sort? Mine does so it's possible but I've moved the other electrical items to a different loop.

Get a good timer made for big lights. Test your breaker to see if it's running multiple rooms. Then come back and let us know.

put a load equal to the light on the same circuit,
if it blows again look to the circuit and wiring if not return the light ....
and bitch like mad!

find out how many amps are on the circuit. sometimes a ballast will pull more to fire up than to run

When I got home last night I turned everything on so I could see exactly what is running on the breaker. I noticed my hall light and main bathroom light is also on the breaker connected to my bedroom. I didn't notice anything other than those lights though.

I swapped out my surge protector for a much better one and picked up a heavy duty timer. Now I'm getting about a 50/50 where it works half the time and flips the breaker half the time. It doesn't seem to matter if everything running on the circuit is on or off.

I moved my light to a different room with another 15 amp breaker to see what happened and it seemed to work just fine. I turned it on 3 or 4 times and there was no problem so I do believe it's a problem with too much load going to my grow room.

Is there a way I can identify why my breaker is only flipping half the time for seemingly random reasons?

vostok said:

put a load equal to the light on the same circuit,
if it blows again look to the circuit and wiring if not return the light ....
and bitch like mad!

Click to expand...

Try running the ballast from a different outlet. If it pops every breaker it's plugged into, it's the ballast.

Yeah I tried a different room and it seemed to work just fine so I'm pretty sure it's a load issue.

Is there a way I can figure out why my breaker is only flipping half the time? I've had it flip with everything on and I've had it flip with nothing on, and I've had it work both ways too.

Bad/weak circuit breaker. They do go bad from time to time. Pretty cheap fix, if you know what your doing.

Oh just a bad breaker? I'm glad to hear that! My uncle should be able to handle that. I'll get that changed and see what happens.

Thanks everyone for the help!

did you happen to feel the wall receptacle to see if it was hot when the breaker popped?

Make sure all the wires on the breaker are tight. Use a plastic handled screwdriver and tighten all your breakers in the box. Loose wires can cause it to flip. It can also cause oxidation of wires lowering the flow of electricity. This will cause the breaker to heat up and weaken it. Also count how many amps are on the circuit. Breakers are designed to hold 80% of the load. In other words if you have a 15 amp breaker you should only have 12 amps on that circuit. Especially if it is a constant draw. Constant draw is defined as 3 or more hours of constant electricity on a single circuit.
However if it flips for no reason with out a load I would be inclined to tighten all the wire connections in your breaker panel. Again all connections must be as tight as possible. This is very important.
A 400 watt light should only draw about 4 amps on a 110v single pole circuit. 2 if it's on a 220v dual pole circuit. Count the amps from everything on that circuit and see if you are over.
I don't know if this is your house or a rental but installing a proper, dedicated circuit for your electricity will help solve all your problems.
You can also test the breaker with a multimeter.

I did feel the wall receptacle and it wasn't hot. I had the light running for about 5 hours straight and constantly monitored it to see if anything at all was getting hot. No signs of excess heat anywhere.

I rent. I live in a trailer. My girlfriend's mom owns it though and she's cool with what we're doing. I'm going to have my uncle come over and take a look at my breaker hopefully later today. He's owned rental properties his whole life and does all the repairs himself so he should be able to tell if my breaker is bad or if the connections are loose anywhere.

Zandri said:

I did feel the wall receptacle and it wasn't hot. I had the light running for about 5 hours straight and constantly monitored it to see if anything at all was getting hot. No signs of excess heat anywhere.

I rent. I live in a trailer. My girlfriend's mom owns it though and she's cool with what we're doing. I'm going to have my uncle come over and take a look at my breaker hopefully later today. He's owned rental properties his whole life and does all the repairs himself so he should be able to tell if my breaker is bad or if the connections are loose anywhere.

Click to expand...

If he knows his stuff see if he can just add another breaker and run a dedicated line for the grow. Then you know there are no issues..and no chance of flipping a switch in another room and killing your circuit.

Zandri said:

When I got home last night I turned everything on so I could see exactly what is running on the breaker. I noticed my hall light and main bathroom light is also on the breaker connected to my bedroom. I didn't notice anything other than those lights though.

I swapped out my surge protector for a much better one and picked up a heavy duty timer. Now I'm getting about a 50/50 where it works half the time and flips the breaker half the time. It doesn't seem to matter if everything running on the circuit is on or off.

I moved my light to a different room with another 15 amp breaker to see what happened and it seemed to work just fine. I turned it on 3 or 4 times and there was no problem so I do believe it's a problem with too much load going to my grow room.

Is there a way I can identify why my breaker is only flipping half the time for seemingly random reasons?

Click to expand...

Perhaps its a 240v AC light on a 110v AC supply,??? ... I know this is dumb, but I
m not really familiar with this USA 110v AC system, but a 15 amp fuse ...? is strange to me, as we deal in 240v AC see it as a 5 amp fuse ..
just saying ...?

I had my uncle come over and check out my breaker. He replaced my 15 amp breaker with a 20 amp and so far everything is working without any problems.

I appreciate the help everyone! Thank you all very much!

Unfortunately that is a dangerous solution. Breakers, wires, outlets and appliances all need to be correctly combined. 15 amp breakers work with 15 amp wire and outlets. Putting a 20 amp breaker on a 15 amp wire can cause a fire. 15 amp wire is thinner and can heat up and cause a fire due to too many amps flowing through the wire. No good my friend. you will need 20 amp wire. Sounds like you need to hire a professional to add a dedicated circuit(s) for your additional needs. Be safe and don't burn down your house or worse, yourself.

Zandri said:

I had my uncle come over and check out my breaker. He replaced my 15 amp breaker with a 20 amp and so far everything is working without any problems.

I appreciate the help everyone! Thank you all very much!

Click to expand...

CouchlockOR said:

Unfortunately that is a dangerous solution. Breakers, wires, outlets and appliances all need to be correctly combined. 15 amp breakers work with 15 amp wire and outlets. Putting a 20 amp breaker on a 15 amp wire can cause a fire. 15 amp wire is thinner and can heat up and cause a fire due to too many amps flowing through the wire. No good my friend. you will need 20 amp wire. Sounds like you need to hire a professional to add a dedicated circuit(s) for your additional needs. Be safe and don't burn down your house or worse, yourself.

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As long as he knows what he's doing and has checked the wiring that's fine. I'd definitely confirm the wiring run is up to the load before running it, I've seen some scary stuff in trailers before..like speaker wire run for outlets.....but that was on older trailer that had many different people do repairs to it over many years. Just be safe.

It's not my place. If it was I'd definitely wire it right. About 6 years ago I was overloading a circuit and the breaker failed to flip and some wires got hot and melted an outlet. One I wasn't even using. Everything was fixed when I added a couple dedicated 20 amp circuits and a couple 30 amp 240 for the lights. Never tripped a breaker agian and I sleep at night feeling safe. That in itself is worth it.
Pretty much all mobile trailers for living were made prior to the 80's. That means old wiring for sure. Old and brittle wiring. I found that my wire casing was old and chipping off the actual wire. My house was built in 1980.
Again do as you will but the information I provided earlier is what an electrician will tell you. Not just something I made up. But it's not my house and life. Good luck.

CouchlockOR said:

Unfortunately that is a dangerous solution. Breakers, wires, outlets and appliances all need to be correctly combined. 15 amp breakers work with 15 amp wire and outlets. Putting a 20 amp breaker on a 15 amp wire can cause a fire. 15 amp wire is thinner and can heat up and cause a fire due to too many amps flowing through the wire. No good my friend. you will need 20 amp wire. Sounds like you need to hire a professional to add a dedicated circuit(s) for your additional needs. Be safe and don't burn down your house or worse, yourself.

Click to expand...

Thanks for letting me know this! My uncle suggested that we use the 20 amp instead of the 15 when he was putting it in. I don't know anything about wiring myself but it seemed like he knew what he was doing and actually suggested upgrading it. Is there a way I can check the wires myself to see if they're correct?

15 amp 110v wire has a white casing over all three wires. 20 amp 110v is yellow.