Circuit Breaker Frequently Tripping After Upgrading Ryzen 3600 to 5600x

BrianTheElectrician · April 6, 2021

Yes I mean the same breaker, not the whole panel. So if for example "bedroom 1, circuit #14" was tripping before but now it's "living room, circuit #16" those would be separate circuits, and separate breakers. Each breaker feeds a circuit and is the over current protection for that circuit. Anything off of it the power has to go through it so if too much current flows or it detects an arc it shuts that circuit off. They definitely look to be arc fault breakers but you're bathroom one should be a ground fault not an arc fault.

As far as separate breakers per room that depends on how it was wired. Often all the plugs in several bedrooms may all be on the same circuit. Under our code in a residence we can have up to 12 plugs/devices on a circuit.

The larger breakers would be for big dedicated loads, for example a 2 pole (2 spots) 40A breaker would typically feed an electric stove, a 2 pole 30A a dryer. The single pole 20a breakers id be willing to bet feed your kitchen counter plugs with your 15A ones being your general plugs and lights.

If both breakers were tripping, I would normally suspect they're sharing a neutral. This shouldn't be the case however as how arc fault and ground fault breakers are wired they need to have dedicated neutrals. It is possible perhaps there is a bad neutral connection in the panel that could cause it, can't think of anything else off hand.

Edit: also, you're not dumb. Your just asking for help with something you don't have experience with. There's no shame in that and better to ask questions and clarify things than blunder forward blindly.

CWasson · April 6, 2021

1 hour ago, BrianTheElectrician said:

1 hour ago, BrianTheElectrician said:

Yes I mean the same breaker, not the whole panel. So if for example "bedroom 1, circuit #14" was tripping before but now it's "living room, circuit #16" those would be separate circuits, and separate breakers. Each breaker feeds a circuit and is the over current protection for that circuit. Anything off of it the power has to go through it so if too much current flows or it detects an arc it shuts that circuit off. They definitely look to be arc fault breakers but you're bathroom one should be a ground fault not an arc fault.

As far as separate breakers per room that depends on how it was wired. Often all the plugs in several bedrooms may all be on the same circuit. Under our code in a residence we can have up to 12 plugs/devices on a circuit.

The larger breakers would be for big dedicated loads, for example a 2 pole (2 spots) 40A breaker would typically feed an electric stove, a 2 pole 30A a dryer. The single pole 20a breakers id be willing to bet feed your kitchen counter plugs with your 15A ones being your general plugs and lights.

If both breakers were tripping, I would normally suspect they're sharing a neutral. This shouldn't be the case however as how arc fault and ground fault breakers are wired they need to have dedicated neutrals. It is possible perhaps there is a bad neutral connection in the panel that could cause it, can't think of anything else off hand.

Edit: also, you're not dumb. Your just asking for help with something you don't have experience with. There's no shame in that and better to ask questions and clarify things than blunder forward blindly.

So my bathroom plug is 20a, and appear to be AFCI/GFCI, based on the breaker. My Kill-a-watt is only rated for 15a. Can I plug it into the 20a bathroom plug to monitor my PC wattage, or will it overpower the meter? Will it draw 20a at all times, or only when under full load?

What information, other than clamping and testing the breaker, would you think I should get to move forward? Our maintenance guy is going to replace the bedroom breaker here in the next day or 2. I tested all of the sockets in that room with an electrical receptacle tester and circuit analyzer, and all of them came back as correctly wired. Should I refrain from running my PC on other circuits until he swaps out that breaker, or do you think I'm safe to do so?

I appreciate your help!

BrianTheElectrician · April 7, 2021

1 hour ago, CWasson said:

So my bathroom plug is 20a, and appear to be AFCI/GFCI, based on the breaker. My Kill-a-watt is only rated for 15a. Can I plug it into the 20a bathroom plug to monitor my PC wattage, or will it overpower the meter? Will it draw 20a at all times, or only when under full load?

What information, other than clamping and testing the breaker, would you think I should get to move forward? Our maintenance guy is going to replace the bedroom breaker here in the next day or 2. I tested all of the sockets in that room with an electrical receptacle tester and circuit analyzer, and all of them came back as correctly wired. Should I refrain from running my PC on other circuits until he swaps out that breaker, or do you think I'm safe to do so?

I appreciate your help!

You're fine to try running it on other circuits, that won't hurt anything. The 15A or 20A rating is just the maximum rating for the amount of current that device can carry, what it can carry Continiously is usually 80% of the rating so 12A for 15A and 16A for 20A. Your killawatt being rated at 15A just means don't have loads plugged in that draw more than that total. Again, apply 80% here so 12A or 1440w. Only the amount of current pulled by the loads are what flows on the circuit. If for example you had a 120w light bulb, that would draw 1A. If that was the only load on that circuit, that's all the current that would flow.

So yes, you'd be fine plugging it into the 20A receptacle as long as you don't pull more than its rated current through it (15A peak, 12A continiously).

If your maintenance guy is replacing the breaker I would just wait until he's done that and see how it is. It's likely a nuisance trip issues with the breaker itself. In the meantime, you can run a cord from a plug on a different circuit to run your computer.