Upgraded from 850w to 1000w PSU - Tripped Circuit Breaker

[amanfr01]

Hello, tom's Hardware friends and family! I posted this morning regarding a separate question entirely. Post #2 today, and I hope you can provide some input. Lengthy post ahead, so I ask for your patience.

My 850w PSU was about 5 years old before I just upgraded to a 1000w. I put everything together yesterday, powered it on, everything was running smoothly. Powered it down. Turned it back on. Same thing. Everything seemed great. A bit more info on my power setup in my office room.

Wall outlet A has two sockets, each had an extension cable plugged into both. Plugged into the end of each extension was a power strip/surge protector (5 sockets per strip with the illuminated on/off switch that would shut off if a surge happened). Power Strip A had Speaker Monitor 1, and PSU/PC. Power Strip B had Speaker Monitor 2 and 24inch Display Monitor.

Woke up this morning, went to turn on my PC, and every time I turned it on the this morning (3x total), it'd trip the circuit breaker on boot. The only difference from last night was that I had a fan and a coffee machine on.

Just out of curiosity, I plugged in the extension cord and the attached Power Strip A (PSU and Speaker Monitor 1) to a different surge protector / power strip system in a different room, and it boots just fine. No circuit breaker trip. No issues.

A couple of things:
- Do you think this is a HARDWARE issue with the power supply? Also, would the circuit breaker tripping have caused potential damage to my PC? Did a Prime95 stress test this morning for an hour with no issues once I had it booting through a different outlet system.

Or...

- Do you think the 150w increase went over the Circuit Breaker's threshold for that specific line of outlets, equipment, etc. In other words, did the high-powered fan in the hallway and the coffee machine add just enough power to the line of electricity that the 1,000w PSU was too much to handle?

Thank you for the responses in advance!

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Specs , make and model of PSU?

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

What graphics cards do you have and how many?

If your pc requires 400watts maximum when gaming it does not matter much if you have 600, 850 or 1000 watt psu

Higher capacity psu's may be slighly less efficient at low loads


Probably a problem with fauly extension leads and power strips

With two wall sockets you can power the pc psu and lcd screen and see what happens

Then try to isolate which component is faulty

What country are you in?
115 volt or 230 volts


Regards
Mike Barnes

 

[dish_moose]

If you had a coffee maker plugged into the same outlet - that is your problem.
-Bruce

 

[amanfr01]

Hey gents! Here are my specs:

ASUS Maximus RANGER VIII
16GB DDR3 RAM
2x NVIDIA 970 GTX in SLI
Intel Core i7-6700k @ 4.2ghz
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G2 120-G2-1000-XR 80+ GOLD 1000W

I am in the United States. Perhaps I should purchase some new power strips / surge protectors? It was only problematic when the Coffee Machine and High-Velocity fan was blowing. Again, I turned it on A-Okay when I first set it up yesterday. The only difference were those two machines turned on. It works perfectly if I plug my power strip, via extension cable, into a different room's power strip.

 

[Shaun o]

If you are talking about he main circuit breaker in your house, that is the one currently tripping.

Is it just tripping the trip switch for the socket ring main circuit on the level that you are on ?

If it is, it`s because there is too much load put on the two sockets with the two five plug extensions connected to them.

If all of the circuits are tripped in the main trip switch box of the house for the lower and upper ring main circuits, and also the lighting circuits for both floors of the house, then you have a positive voltage in a circuit bridging to the ground.

Just like with an old type fuse box where fuse wire is used each ring main for the house has a set amount of maximum amp rating that the whole ring main in can work from as a safe maximum.

For example a lighting circuit of a house or the circuit that deals with the lighting circuit fo the upper lighting ring main will have a 5 amp fuse wire fitted.

If at any point the power demand or draw exceeds the maximum 5 amp draw across any of the lights of the lighting ring mane the fuse will heat up and melt.

Due to the fuse wire used, and how thin it is.
Because passing a larger current down the fuse causes it to heat up to the point of melting, if the power draw from a light on the lighting ring main is to great.

Trip switches work on the principle of electrical resistance in the same way.
But instead of a fuse wire a Bi metal type strip is used in each of the trip switch breakers of the main trip switch box.

As the bi metal strip heats up due to extra power draw from devices connected on the ring main it expands and bends where it reaches the point where the switch clicks to a open circuit.

Think of it like a Kettle when the water heats up and boils, and the switch on the kettle flicks to its off state.

So yes the extra power draw from one socket with a five plugs connected all drawing power would exceed the total amp draw of the whole circuit and the trip switch.

As much as the wattage drawn from the circuit it can be the amount of amps drawn from a single socket on the ring main.
You were indeed right in your assumption as to the cause.

 

[amanfr01]

If you had a coffee maker plugged into the same outlet - that is your problem.
-Bruce

The coffee maker + fan were plugged into a different room. The circuit breaker that was switched was for my office room and storage room. That's the odd thing. And it's why I'm wondering if I should contact my electrician if there's something wrong with the circuitry in my condo.

 

[dish_moose]

Many houses will have multiple outlets on the same breaker so did the coffee maker go off when the computer did? What exactly switched off when the computer did?
Also, some PSUs will have a very high inrush current when the are first turned on as the capacitors in the psu charge. Look here:
\https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/SuperNOVA_G2_1000/5.html
-Bruce

 

[amanfr01]

Many houses will have multiple outlets on the same breaker so did the coffee maker go off when the computer did? What exactly switched off when the computer did?
Also, some PSUs will have a very high inrush current when the are first turned on as the capacitors in the psu charge. Look here:
\https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/SuperNOVA_G2_1000/5.html
-Bruce

My office (with the computer) and bathroom in the hallway somewhat not near the coffee machine all powered off. Those outlets. In other words, that circuit was switched to off. Which I guess was the office room and bathroom. The coffee maker is in the kitchen.

 

[dish_moose]

Code allows for multiple outlets on same breaker. Unfortunately you need to see if there is an outlet close by that is not loaded as heavily - you can also get an electrician to run another circuit(costly).
-Bruce

 

[mjslakeridge]

Lets assume the circuit breaker that is tripping is a 15Amp breaker. (most common for general purpose lighting/wall sockets in the US). So, 15 amps x 120 volts = 1,800 Watts. That is the maximum wattage of the combined devices that should be connected to that circuit. You should figure out exactly what all is on that circuit (which wall sockets, lights) within your house. One way to do this is to plug a loud radio into wall sockets in various rooms, one by one and trip the various breakers in the breaker panel. When the radio goes off, make a list of what breaker corresponded to the wall socket. Turn on all the lights in the house and do the same thing, tripping breakers one at a time, noting which lights are on which breaker. You can probably ignore the 30/50 amp circuits as they will be for air conditioners, ovens, and other heavy duty appliances.

Depending on how big your house is, this could take some time, but you will then have a good schematic of your electrical system. (I have 2 100 Amp breaker panels, it took quite a few hours).

 

[amanfr01]

Code allows for multiple outlets on same breaker. Unfortunately you need to see if there is an outlet close by that is not loaded as heavily - you can also get an electrician to run another circuit(costly).
-Bruce

Do you think I should get an 8ft or so Surge Protector? Basically I need to plug in 4 things (sometimes 5 for external hard drives):

- 2 Speakers / Monitors. I do a lot of audio Production
- 1 Monitor
- PC / PSU, of course.
- OCCASIONALLY: External Hard drive.

Is it safe to plug all of these things to the same surge protector? Or should I use two separate surge protectors for the same two-socket outlet? I'm probably going to go to the department store after work and pick one up. I'd rather play it safe and get a surge protector a little more hefty.

 

[dish_moose]

I was thinking more like find another outlet for the other offenders. Can the coffee maker be plugged into another outlet on a different circuit? Coffee makers, hair dryers etc. draw large amounts of current(high wattage).
-Bruce
Edit: If you switch off your PSU every time you turn it back on there will be a very large inrush current to charge the capacitors in your PSU. Leave it on - computers when sleeping use very little power and move the coffee maker to another outlet and you should be fine.

 

[Br1414]

As an electrician I'll try to be helpful. How old your place is matters, but its more than possible that all of your bedroom /living room/office plugs are on one or two circuits. More than legal. The bathroom should be its own circuit by code ( hair dryers, ect), but either your place is really old or its been "reworked" a few times. Kitchens should have two appliance circuits that are separate. If your curious just start turning off breakers and go around with a plug in light and check it out.

I will say though that breakers do not trip a 15 a. On overloads they trip on heat, so you might be running 20a or more before a 30 year old breaker trips. Its not exactly good for the breaker either it be running hot all time, but I'm not trying to scare you.

Anyway see if you have another actual circuit you can use, move stuff around, but the safe bet if you plan on living there awhile is a dedicated circuit. 1000w max (thats 1000w DC right?, so only 80% efficient maybe...?) Plus monitors, sound, everything else?

I'd like a nice 20a breaker serving one plug with some nice surge suppression on the panel (at the source).We spend a lot on electronics but they need infrastructure! Its like driving semis down side streets sometimes. Not designed.

 

[carol palmer]

usually a circuit breaker trips or shuts off the electrical flow in order to protect circuit from overheating or any damage, in worst case electrical fire. Before flipping the switch take a moment to determine the root cause. The three typical causes include overloaded circuit, short circuit and ground circuit, Overloading is the main reason for tripping. The solution is redistribute the power heavy devices in the overloaded circuit to another general purpose circuit or turning off some devices on the circuit to reduce the electrical load. For more technical know-how, check with home electrical wiring services like the shock doctors http://www.theshockdoctors.ca/electrician-services/ . The other reason could be short circuit. when a hot wire touches another hot wire or touches neutral wire in one of your outlets.