Electrical question

[Aquattro]

A question for anyone that knows more about electrical than I, which should be everybody! Recently, say last three weeks, the power bar my lights are plugged into trips about 5 hours into running. Tried a new bar, same thing. This setup has been running unchanged for some time, say 5 or 6 months, and only recently this has happened. Nothing has been added. Would cooling for the ballasts help? although it ran fine in the hottest part of last summer.
Thoughts?

[scumchug]

Typically when ballasts start to loose their "stuff" they draw massive amounts of energy. Get a Kill-a-watt and test them independently to see if they are drawing more than they should.

[Aquattro]

These are electronic and 6 months old, is it possible they're drawing too much at this point?

[scumchug]

I wouldn't expect there to be any problems, but anything is possible I guess.

[Aquattro]

I think we have a meter at work, I'll bring it home and check.

[mike31154]

Any idea what the nominal wattage of your lighting system currently is? What does the lighting consist of, MH, T5HO, VHO or a mix? Most power bars should be rated to handle close to 15 amps, or around 1800 watts, which is normally the maximum available through a 15 amp circuit in your home. That would take a lot of lighting to trip. I suspect that since it takes up to 5 hours to trip and it does this with both power bars you've tried, there is a problem with one of your lighting components. Then again, it's not out of the question that both power bars are somewhat faulty. What brand are they, same? Do they have an ON/OFF switch and a circuit breaker, or just a lighted switch. Surge protection capabilities?

Without a tester and complete specifications of the components, it's almost impossible to troubleshoot something of this nature.

[NAS]

That is really wierd... If the breaker is going after 5 hours there has to be a cause. You tried a differnt power bar, its not that.

What all is pluged into the power bar that is tripping. Try to find what is kicking in at the 5 hour mark buy removing the non-esential plugs one at a time. Ie, skimmer, then light 1, then 2 ect... you can keep the equipment running by using an extension cord. This should let you isolate the current leak.

[banditpowdercoat]

Any idea what the nominal wattage of your lighting system currently is? What does the lighting consist of, MH, T5HO, VHO or a mix? Most power bars should be rated to handle close to 15 amps, or around 1800 watts, which is normally the maximum available through a 15 amp circuit in your home. That would take a lot of lighting to trip. I suspect that since it takes up to 5 hours to trip and it does this with both power bars you've tried, there is a problem with one of your lighting components. Then again, it's not out of the question that both power bars are somewhat faulty. What brand are they, same? Do they have an ON/OFF switch and a circuit breaker, or just a lighted switch. Surge protection capabilities?

Without a tester and complete specifications of the components, it's almost impossible to troubleshoot something of this nature.

It's acctually 12 amps on a 15 amp circuit. You can not load a breaker more than 80% of its trip rating. So, that said, a 15 amp breaker will trip at 15amps short circuit, But for overload, it will trip at 12 amps continous.
But thats still 1300 watts, thats a bit. But, 3 400W lights, and if ballasts/lights are getting weak. Also, I dont know how accurate the powerbar breakers are. They could be tripping at 10 amps??

[NAS]

I just recently had a similar problem. After all was said and done I ended up testing my actual breaker box with a meter and found that I had a dud Breaker. It was a 15a breaker and was constantly trippin.

But im confused I thought that the powerbars were cuttin out... Is the main breaker goin on that chanel in your house?

[BC564]

Can I have more info on the type of power bar it is? GFCI ...surge or just a normal power bar.

[ridder]

If you can get hold of an amp meter, then you can monitor your lights,pump,ect.
After your lights startup, wait for your bulbs to warm up around 5 min and then check
the amp reading on each lamp. Two hours later recheck each lamp again, if the amp
reading on any of the lamps go up, This mean your ballast is getting weak or short.

[mike31154]

Can Tire currently has UPMs (power monitor) on sale. They kind of look like the larger digital timers that plug directly into the wall. Don't know how accurate they are but they're designed to monitor the usage of your larger appliances. You can monitor different parameters such as wattage, amps, etc. and if you know what your paying per kilowatt hour, you can even input that information. It will then calculate the cost per kilowatt hour of the appliance you have it hooked up to. Less than $20.00

[Aquattro]

Ok, so I hooked up a Kill A Watt meter, and with both lights and fan running, I'm sitting at 8.5A draw. And it tripped just as I'm typing this. I wasnt watching it to see if it spiked, but today it's tripping every 15 minutes. I'll watch it next round to see if it spikes. It could be the cheap power bar, maybe I need a better one?

[Aquattro]

So it might just be a crappy power bar. It tripped at 8.6, no spikes, just tripped. Unless there is an intermittent short somewhere? I'll try a third power bar. What kind of strips are people using for 8A worth of draw?

[mike31154]

That's close to 1,000 watts but should not be a problem for a good quality power bar. I'm using a Coralife Digital Timer power bar plugged into a GFCI receptacle for my T5HO lighting (4x54 watts), 350 watt heater, small air pump & a small powerhead. Total wattage appears to be somewhat less than the lights on your bar and I haven't had a problem. The Coralife doesn't have it's own circuit breaker to trip, only an ON/OFF switch. It also has the timer display and associated programming buttons and it is rated to handle 15 amps total.

When you're shopping for that next power bar, just make sure that it's a good heavy duty job and that it is rated for 15 amps. Most of the quality power bars will have this spec on a data plate somewhere, if not on the packaging. Our local Can Tire stocks a timer power bar almost identical to the Coralife. The only difference I noted is that the 4 timed outlets all work the same whereas the Coralife has them split into two day & two night receptacles. That is when two of the outlets are powered ON, the other two are OFF. The 4 remaining outlets are always ON regardless of timer programming. The other difference is price, Can Tire version is less and I think it says 'not suitable for aquarium' use, but I think that's just a CYA statement.

[Aquattro]

Thanks Mike. Both of mine state 15A, but trip at less than 9. I'll try a over $10 bar today and see if there's a difference. If not, it might be a short somewhere, I'll have to dismantle my lighting and rebuild. Nice, I gotta fix this in a week, leaving town soon. :(

[Alberta-newb]

Just a note on the Coralife timer/power bars, check on RC, there is a thread on a house fire caused by one of these, several others have chimed in with similar disasters by them as well.

[Aquattro]

I swapped it for the one on my TV, so far, so good. If it trips this one, there's something wrong in the circuit somewhere.

[StirCrazy]

come get one of mine tonight, I am not using it right now anyways.

Steve