electrical mystery

[johncomic]

Okay, so something weird happened at my place recently. In our bedroom there is a little lamp sitting on the night-table. It plugs into a wall outlet that is controlled by a switch near the door -- so you can flick the light off and on without needing to cross the room in the dark and go to the night-table, y'follow?

So the other night Sharon sez, “The light on the night-table is burnt out”... which struck me as odd, cuz the bulb is fluorescent [saves energy and lasts a long time] and it's pretty new. It definitely wasn't lighting up, but I checked the bulb and it didn't look burnt. Put in a new bulb: still didn't light. Moved the lamp into another room and plugged it in there: it lit. Put the old bulb back in: it still lit.

So the problem isn't the bulb, or the lamp: it's the circuit. I couldn't figure why an electrical circuit that was working fine the day before would suddenly die. I mean, the wiring -- the whole house -- is only two years old. I was mystipuzzled.

After a few hours it finally somehow occurred to me to check the circuit breakers in the basement... and sure enough, one lone breaker was thrown out of position. I clicked it back into line, went upstairs, and lo and behold now the night-table lamp works. Mystery sorta-solved.

My questions is: why did that breaker get tripped? No one here touched it. My understanding is that a circuit breaker will flip off if it gets overloaded... but as far as I can see, the only thing controlled by that breaker is the wall switch that connects to that one outlet where the lamp is. I don't see how one little lamp can suddenly overload a circuit, especially when that same lamp runs on that same circuit just fine every day except that one time. So what gives?

Comments

[chiabrit.livejournal.com]

Could have been a couple of things, that circuit is shared by AC, Heating, Garage or something or you just had a power spike and that was the first circuit it hit and it tripped the breaker.

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

that circuit is shared by AC, Heating, Garage or something

Don't think so: all those things, and everything else in the house, were continuing to function normally while the lamp was out of whack.

or you just had a power spike and that was the first circuit it hit and it tripped the breaker

That sounds more like it. Before this happened we did have an electrical storm go thru the area, and at one point some of the lights flickered. I didn't think it was an actual power interruption cuz the computer and all the other electronics never noticed it when it happened. So it was just dumb luck that it hit that one breaker?

[chiabrit.livejournal.com]

Dumb luck yup, or you might want to check for signs of little critters its possible someone has been gnawing on cables.

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Well, ever since I reset the breaker everything's been fine, so I hope that means no chewing. Not sure how I would see inside the walls to check for mousey bites anyhoo!

[tinman.livejournal.com]

The general rule I follow (and this applies to the circuit breakers in the cockpit when I'm flying, too) is that, if a breaker trips, go ahead and reset it once. If it stays on, it was just a transient surge and nothing to worry about (they do happen from time to time). If it trips again, leave it off and have someone check it out (an electrician at home, a certified mechanic for the plane). But don't keep resetting it or you risk a fire.

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, and that matches up with my uninformed gut feeling about such things too! In this particular case, I put it back on once and it stayed on and it's been fine ever since, so like you said guess that's OK!