Question PC Flipping breaker

[Wafcon]

Hi all, I've read up some similar situations to mine but figured I should still run it by you guys.

Background:
Everything in my bedroom is on it's own 15amp breaker circuit (except for the lights) and its always been a bit sensitive, flipping at different times. I remember the first time it flipped it only had a speaker and a hair dryer going in the whole room while I was doing some painting. Over the years the breaker flipping every 3-4 months was not uncommon, but it was mostly seemingly random. I even moved a portable heater onto an extension cord to a different rooms circuit to avoid issues. My home is only 5 years old.

Now:
Until just recently, I upgraded my pc's 1080ti to a 3080. Ever since, I have been having frequent breaker flips, whenever I am doing something more graphically intense such as playing apex legends, playing VR, or even just running stable diffusion. I did some digging and replaced my 750w PSU with a 1000w PSU just a couple days ago since my build definitely needed more power with the new card, but that still hasn't stopped the breaker flips.

I've looked around and some people are saying things about everything from grounding issues, replacing breakers, to rewiring entire circuits. I was hoping that my $200 PSU upgrade would solve things but now I'm just starting to think that I need to replace my breaker? 15 Amp breakers are apparently supposed to be good up until 1800 - 2000 and I don't think there's anyway I am near that.

Either way, any help you guys could send my way would be greatly appreciated.

 

[punkncat]

Hire an electrician to troubleshoot that circuit.

I personally suspect a bad breaker, as you mention. That is not uncommon. The other aspect could relate to the wiring itself.

 

[Wafcon]

Hire an electrician to troubleshoot that circuit.

I personally suspect a bad breaker, as you mention. That is not uncommon. The other aspect could relate to the wiring itself.

You are probably right :/ I just looked up the price of the breaker and the next thing that blew was my mind: https://www.canadabreakers.ca/product

 

[faalin]

I would flip the breaker off and walk around with a lamp and plug into outlets to see if there are any other outlets connected to that circuit.

Next i would start looking at everything plugged into your room, in general a hair dryer is around 1500w at full power, a portable heater is also very power hungry.

What is the manufacture and model of the power panel, you do not need an arc fault breaker unless you have a sink in your room.

Looking at the breaker you posted you should only need this https://www.canadabreakers.ca/products/bql15?_fid=73b85f0a8&_pos=20&_ss=c To replace it you need to turn off the power to your house, you can do this by flipping the main breaker on the panel. Unscrew the cover to the power panel, then unscrew the breaker from the panel. DO NOT TRY TO REMOVE THE BREAKER WHILE THE POWER PANEL IS LIVE. Since these breakers screw directly into the buss bar in the panel you will get shocked.

 

[punkncat]

You are probably right :/ I just looked up the price of the breaker and the next thing that blew was my mind: https://www.canadabreakers.ca/product

There must be something going on with Canadian electrical hardware....
If this circuit isn't already a ground fault interrupt (GFI) you don't have to purchase a breaker that has that feature unless it is code or something up there.

Standard 15A breaker is ~$7 at Home Depot here.

 

[punkncat]

In respect to the comments made above by @faalin if you are not an electrician or at least quite familiar with residential wiring it is best practice to use someone who is. Messing around in a breaker panel is a great way to have six of your friends and family carry you.

 

[scout_03]

get one of those and test your outlet wiring https://www.google.ca/search?q=outl...wEYgATCAg4QLhiABBjHARivARiOBQ&sclient=gws-wiz

 

[Ralston18]

Seconding @punkncat on all counts.

Get an electrician.

Someone qualified who knows the applicable electrical codes for your area, who knows how to troubleshoot such issues, knows and/or can identify what needs to be replaced, the proper replacement, and has the skills and knowledge to do so.

If something bad happens and an unqualified person did the work you may discover that your homeowner's insurance policy will be voided accordingly.

 

[USAFRet]

I will also agree with the above - Get an electrician.

 

[Wafcon]

I would flip the breaker off and walk around with a lamp and plug into outlets to see if there are any other outlets connected to that circuit.

Next i would start looking at everything plugged into your room, in general a hair dryer is around 1500w at full power, a portable heater is also very power hungry.

What is the manufacture and model of the power panel, you do not need an arc fault breaker unless you have a sink in your room.

Looking at the breaker you posted you should only need this https://www.canadabreakers.ca/products/bql15?_fid=73b85f0a8&_pos=20&_ss=c To replace it you need to turn off the power to your house, you can do this by flipping the main breaker on the panel. Unscrew the cover to the power panel, then unscrew the breaker from the panel. DO NOT TRY TO REMOVE THE BREAKER WHILE THE POWER PANEL IS LIVE. Since these breakers screw directly into the buss bar in the panel you will get shocked.

That is the exact breaker that is there now for my room. There is no sink in my room lol. It is the only breaker of that kind on the panel.

Edit: Also there are no other outlets on this circuit, I went around and checked.

 

[Wafcon]

There must be something going on with Canadian electrical hardware....
If this circuit isn't already a ground fault interrupt (GFI) you don't have to purchase a breaker that has that feature unless it is code or something up there.

Standard 15A breaker is ~$7 at Home Depot here.

The breaker I linked is the exact breaker that is in there currently. Its also the only one of that kind on the whole panel.

 

[punkncat]

Here in the states you have to have GFI on the bathrooms, kitchen, and sometimes the garage due to water risk. I cannot say I am at all familiar with code in Canada but would imagine something similar for the same reasons. Generally speaking there should be a small reset switch and an indicator light for those outlets being hot. Doesn't have to be all of them that way, but one on the circuit which will show a green light when on. You may be able to flip this breaker and then go check for that light and/or take that hair dryer along with to check those locations.

edit- IDK if you are on a basement or a location that it is possible to even pull a new circuit. When we had our AC replaced they had to pull a new service cable and breaker for it, so I had a 20A breaker on a line that was just wire nutted off in the basement. I pulled that service over to the plug where my UPS is and have that dedicated circuit running the three PC in my home office.

 

[bill001g]

That is not a GFCI breaker it is one of the new arc fault breakers. This is part of the code for new homes in the USA. Something that in my opinion is scam pushed by the breaker manufacture to the politicians so the could force sale of more expensive and profitable breakers. The theory is stupid people run extension cords under their carpet. The extension cords can get damaged and "arc" under the carpet and start a fire.

Trying to protect stupid people from themselves and make everyone pay more for something that is very rare.

In any case you can get that breaker for far less. More in the $35-$50 range but still 3 or 4 times the price of a simple breaker.

Breakers are easy to replace but messing around in the power panel when you don't know what you are doing could kill you.

 

[wyliec2]

I've never used PC/UPS equipment on an AFCI breaker but have had several issues with GFCI circuits.

GFCI circuit breaker trips after UPS or SurgeArrest | Schneider Electric USA

“UPS systems and computer equipment exhibit leakage currents. These currents
are a natural result of the common mode filters present in computers and UPSs.
These leakage currents may be large enough to ""fool"" the GFCI and cause it to
trip. When this happens the UPS will go to battery because the GFCI will cut
power to the UPS or computer. The UPS passes the cumulative leakage current of
all of the connected loads back to the GFCI device."

 

[Wafcon]

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I ended up solving the problem by simply putting a new standard 15amp breaker in its place. Its been in there for more than a week and I've had no issues since. I also bought a wattage meter to double check what my PC was using, and I've not seen it go over 550w yet, so I'm pretty sure it was a waste of time and money to get upgrade my PSU to 1000w but oh well, now I've got more room for down the road.

It seems like the the "unique" breaker I had before was in some way extra sensitive to leakage currents or something similar, probably combined with the wear of flipping so many times or perhaps even it just being an altogether faulty breaker.