When lights come on sometimes random GCFIs trip in house?????????

Getcrunk

Getcrunk

Well-Known Member
I'm running 6k watts on a dedicated 40 amp breaker in 220. The lights come on using a 220v intermatic timer. Lately ive had strange occurances of when my lights come on around 7:35pm ill lose power in my kitchen and ill have to hit reset on my GFCI outlet and then everything works fine. Other times the lights will quit working in my bathroom and same thing I hit the reset and everything works fine. It only occurs when the timer pops on for the first time. And it DOES NOT ALWAYS happen, its happened 3 times in the last week. I don't understand whats going on but I could use some help figuring it out. The setup was working flawlessly running 4k watts and I recently added a 3rd outlet (just connected to the other 2) so I could run 2 more 1k ballasts off the same timer. Which is 40 amp rated and the 6 ballasts would be 4.3A each and anyways all of that is working fine. All we had to do in the actual breaker box was disconnect the wire the timer is hooked up to so we could reroute it and hook it back up. My friend who has done hundreds of wiring jobs did it for me. Is it possible we messed something up in the breaker box somehow? Like I said it doesnt always happen, and hitting reset makes it all work fine. No wires are hot, nothing smells hot, and the outlets that are popping exactly when my timer pops on arent or SHOULDNT have anything to do with the dedicated line my timer is run on. I Can provide pictures of the inside of my circuit panel if that helps but theres just wires everywhere. I believe he did accidently disconnect a wrong wire at once point but he just hooked it back up im wondering if he did something wrong. THANKS FOR READING I KNOW ITS LONG. Just dont want house burning down while I sleep. I can take pics of the timer, wiring, my 200amp breaker box (which is 2 years old and professionally installed) Whatever. THANK YOU!
 
justugh

justugh

Well-Known Member
Getcrunk said:
I'm running 6k watts on a dedicated 40 amp breaker in 220. The lights come on using a 220v intermatic timer. Lately ive had strange occurances of when my lights come on around 7:35pm ill lose power in my kitchen and ill have to hit reset on my GFCI outlet and then everything works fine. Other times the lights will quit working in my bathroom and same thing I hit the reset and everything works fine. It only occurs when the timer pops on for the first time. And it DOES NOT ALWAYS happen, its happened 3 times in the last week. I don't understand whats going on but I could use some help figuring it out. The setup was working flawlessly running 4k watts and I recently added a 3rd outlet (just connected to the other 2) so I could run 2 more 1k ballasts off the same timer. Which is 40 amp rated and the 6 ballasts would be 4.3A each and anyways all of that is working fine. All we had to do in the actual breaker box was disconnect the wire the timer is hooked up to so we could reroute it and hook it back up. My friend who has done hundreds of wiring jobs did it for me. Is it possible we messed something up in the breaker box somehow? Like I said it doesnt always happen, and hitting reset makes it all work fine. No wires are hot, nothing smells hot, and the outlets that are popping exactly when my timer pops on arent or SHOULDNT have anything to do with the dedicated line my timer is run on. I Can provide pictures of the inside of my circuit panel if that helps but theres just wires everywhere. I believe he did accidently disconnect a wrong wire at once point but he just hooked it back up im wondering if he did something wrong. THANKS FOR READING I KNOW ITS LONG. Just dont want house burning down while I sleep. I can take pics of the timer, wiring, my 200amp breaker box (which is 2 years old and professionally installed) Whatever. THANK YOU!
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i know the reason it is at start up there is a bigger drawl on the system then when it is humming along so the system surges to keep the power demand and it is tripping the circuit when there is a higher demand on the house grid the gfci outlet thinks it is power strike and needs to be reset

stagger the lights by 5 to 10 mins turning on and should be fine again( let them warm up and hum before the next set goes on) ....4 was working because the power surge coming in was not enough but u added 2 more so u just increased the demand

as for your house and to give u peace of mind .....tell your electrical friend to come over and just make sure wire gauge is to code or better (6 pack and steak kind of thing talk shit ) if the house was done to code before it should be good .......if u have done anything like adding your own line and stuff becarful u get it to code and have it signed off by electrician (that way if something goes wrong your insurance has no out )
 
Getcrunk

Getcrunk

Well-Known Member
The 200amp service and box is definately legit was done by a reputable company my buddy really liked it. I was thinking of just getting an autopilot. It is an older house. I can do basic wiring ive done it many times, do you think it would be worth it to replace the GFCI outlets with new ones its an older house and i believe they must be 20 years old by now. Its all romex 10/3 to the timer. I got a couple pics if youre bored to look at lol
 
Getcrunk

Getcrunk

Well-Known Member
The wire is romex 10/3 to the timer then 10/2 to the outlets but he has the coppers twisted together, that seem right? lol
 

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Dunbar Santiago

Dunbar Santiago

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Are just the gcfis tripping, or are you getting lights flickering and short power outages to other parts of the house as well? Have you noticed any clocks getting reset? Either way, when you lose power, put your hand on your breakers and feel for any heat. If any of them are warm, it's bad and will cause the issues you're having. Yes, it can cause you to lose power in parts of the house that aren't on that breaker. And no, the breaker itself may not trip. So even if the breaker isn't tripping, it can still be bad.

Even if the breakers aren't warm, one still may be bad since you said outlets are tripping as soon as the timer kicks on. I'd put my money on it being a bad breaker, or like you said, maybe something your buddy did when he was messing with the timer. But if there was a short in the timer, you'd likely have more problems than just the gcfis tripping when it kicks on. It doesn't have to be the breaker your ballasts are on that's bad. Since you're on 220, that circuit is drawing from both sides of the breaker box, and the problem could be in any one of your breakers.
If you can't figure it out, call a licensed electrician. It's probably something simple and won't cost a fortune to fix.
 
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Getcrunk

Getcrunk

Well-Known Member
Dunbar Santiago said:
Are just the gcfis tripping, or are you getting lights flickering and short power outages to other parts of the house as well? Have you noticed any clocks getting reset? Either way, when you lose power, put your hand on your breakers and feel for any heat. If any of them are warm, it's bad and will cause the issues you're having. Yes, it can cause you to lose power in parts of the house that aren't on that breaker. And no, the breaker itself may not trip. So even if the breaker isn't tripping, it can still be bad.

Even if the breakers aren't warm, one still may be bad since you said outlets are tripping as soon as the timer kicks on. I'd put my money on it being a bad breaker, or like you said, maybe something your buddy did when he was messing with the timer. But if there was a short in the timer, you'd likely have more problems than just the gcfis tripping when it kicks on. It doesn't have to be the breaker your ballasts are on that's bad. Since you're on 220, that circuit is drawing from both sides of the breaker box, and the problem could be in any one of your breakers.
If you can't figure it out, call a licensed electrician. It's probably something simple and won't cost a fortune to fix.
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Yes the 2 particular areas that its happened to my kitchen and downstairs bathroom have lost power when the lights came on, and only when the lights came on. Hitting the reset on the gcfi restored all power to that area and there were no further problems. It has happened 3 times total in a week. No burnt smells in breaker box or timer. No melted anything, it all looks ok to me but i dunno. Have another electric savvy buddy coming today. Will figure it out. My guess is how he set up the grounds on the timer itself when he rewired the 3 outlets together. He likes to smoke alot of wax lol... But ya so far nothing seems super dangerous. And wired in battery backup smoke detector is right above timer/all my ballasts with fire extinguishers handy at all times!
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Cant tell for sure in the pics but it looks like you have several neutral wires connected to a ground buss. Neutral to a neutral buss and grounds to a ground buss.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
The timer is poorly wired too. No box connectors to secure the wires. Also the outer sheathing on cables inside boxes should be removed.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Herb & Suds said:
I had a similar issue
It took 16 of the 10 foot grounding rods before we got a solid ground :wall:
To be fair , I live on top of an old rock quarry
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Man I hope you didn't have to drive all those by hand lol.

I use a little trick for ground rods, I use an electric jackhammer with the tool removed, just slip the socket over the ground rod and let it hammer that into the ground, takes just seconds to pound a 10 footer in. lol You do have to stand on a ladder to get it going tho. But yeah, let the weight of the jackhammer do all the work.
 
Herb & Suds

Herb & Suds

Well-Known Member
Renfro said:
Man I hope you didn't have to drive all those by hand lol.

I use a little trick for ground rods, I use an electric jackhammer with the tool removed, just slip the socket over the ground rod and let it hammer that into the ground, takes just seconds to pound a 10 footer in. lol You do have to stand on a ladder to get it going tho. But yeah, let the weight of the jackhammer do all the work.
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Now ya tell me :o:grin:
Edit actually we used a fence post driver
 
Getcrunk

Getcrunk

Well-Known Member
Had the electrician come by and go through everything. He said several screws werent tightened down enough. Issue is solved for 100 bux. And 10 gauge is plenty for what im running im doing 6 lights @ 4.3amps each so only using about 26 amps total. He said everything looked good he liked it he said he wired dozens of grow rooms here in michigan. He went through the timer and it looked fine to him so I dunno lol. But he checked everything even went through the entire breaker box with his meter was there a good 2 hours turned of every breaker individually and checked em all. Time to grow some weed! Well I been but time to sleep better while growing some weed
 
Getcrunk

Getcrunk

Well-Known Member
Hes been doing it for 40 years hes like 65 and hes does the state of michigan's electrical work when people get state grants so he must know what hes doing he hasn't burnt anyones house down yet lol
 
Getcrunk

Getcrunk

Well-Known Member
Renfro said:
Or not so professionally installed. lol Glad you got it going and growing. Keep that guys number, handy to have.
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Definitely installed sloppy lol but the wires made it where they were supposed to just not tightened down enough :-D My buddy was doing me a favor after a long day and he had a few wax tipped cigarettes so im glad he didnt screw up anything else worse lol. And I know him pretty well him and my mother grew up together he installed the 200amp service in the house.
 
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