My new 1275W PSU trips the circuit breaker

[Jimmy Scribbles]

My power supply unit -1275W trips the circuit breaker whenever any additional components are plugged into a socket in the same room, such as my LCD monitor. Is there some sort of adapter I can buy that limits the current the PSU can use? If not what is the best solution? I spent a lot of my money on building this PC but now I can't use it. I can run the PC when nothing else is plugged in, but as soon as i turn the power on for something else tje power for the whole floor trips. Any help is really appreciated!

 

[Someone Somewhere]

No; just a standard C-Curve breaker and an RCD.

AFCIs aren't mandatory here.

EDIT for further info: The power strips are required by law to have a built-in 10A breaker (10A being standard plug rating); don't know what trip curve. The circuit it's on has a 16A C-Curve breaker, and the whole house (except a circuit for network gear) is on a 30mA RCD.

 

[hunter315]

I'm 99% sure that's wrong.

Many devices (switch mode power supplies and electric motors being the main culprits) have inrush currents many many times that of the continuous current. I'd have to get out a lot of measuring equipment, but e.g. a fridge probably draws upwards of 20A, even at 230V. I've run 2.4kW rated heaters (rated at 240V, we use 230V±10% IIRC) on 10A rated power strips.

I'm with you on this. Also, who specs for a 3 hour load time? That isn't a practical quantity of time, especially not for a safety device like a circuit breaker. Though I'll look into this more this week.

Inrush current is massive for some of these bigger supplies, that is about the only useful test from a tom's PSU review. A lot of PSUs have a resistor in series with the line to reduce inrush current that they swap out after they have started up, but for those that don't it can get pretty ridiculous (50A.....)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/750-watt-psu-80-plus-gold,2927-10.html

If you want to talk about ridiculous inrush of an AC motor, whenever an elevator starts up it sucks down enough to make the line in the entire building sag. I work with stuff that uses the zero cross on the line for timing, so elevators are kinda our nemesis since they turn the whole line to crap...

As for the primary topic at hand here, i think we still need more information from the OP.

 

[Jimmy Scribbles]

What additional information do you require? I have verified that each room has two circuits. One for the lights and one for the sockets. The power trips when any additional components are plugged in with my psu on the same circuit. All oth the circuits for each room on the top floor allow the same current before tripping, but I think my living room may have several circuits over the sockets. Do you think it would be worth a shot using it there?

 

[hunter315]

What are you doing when the system trips the breaker? Turning the system on? Running a game? Running a stress test? How long is it running? If it is running a short time you have to have either a massive overcurrent or a defective breaker.

If you turn off the monitors(which are assumably on the same circuit) does the breaker still trip? What is the current rating of the breaker? 10, 15, or 20A? And what is the power supply you are using? Since circuit breakers respond to current not power if you have one with bad PFC your average current draw may be within the window, but the spikes due to the harmonics and the poor power factor may exceed the breaker's limits.

 

[Jimmy Scribbles]

I found a separate socket downstairs that can handle the downgraded psu, so it is not a problem anymore, although defeats the objective of having a pc in my room. Thanks for the advice guys!