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[teejk]

Little update: (I don't feel it's 100% figured out...) We have 7 people up here, showers, dishwasher going... NO breakers are tripping.

Will the one who said to pour water on the grounding rods... please pat yourself on your back. :drink: :dance1:


We had 4 inches of rain in a very short period of time... mini-mudslide and water deposited under our deck... 4-5" of nasty liquid. That's the only thing that's different... I used the "tester" mentioned before to check the outside outlets and they all said they were wired fine.

Plan now is to sink more grounding rods in the soil that stays moist... on the exposed side of the house. And plan to keep track of the breakers to see if this weekend was just a fluke. (electrical pun intended... sue me )

Now I need to let the mud dry up so I can removed it from under my covered deck...

Be careful there...newer code now requires "single point grounding" (e.g. even your satellite dish/telephone/whatever has to be tied into your primary ground (in my case 2 driven rods connected to the main panel). Not a big deal (e.g. buy a grounding block, connect to your primary grounding system and ground everything else to that block). I'm not a "sparky" and don't quite understand the reasons for "single point grounding" nor do I understand the increased need for GFCI or now Arc fault or tamper proof...I grew up in a house with 60 amp fused service and 2 prong outlets and can report that nobody died from electrical shock.

 

[teg]

....and can report that nobody died from electrical shock.

Ding ding... we've had to clean up flooded areas, with electric service in the floor... no shock, just hot water (sometimes steam)...

 

[teg]

OP here... Guests finally leave, we did one load of laundry, even ran dishwasher, NO problem!!! Yea! Have nothing turned on except the clothes washer. Since that first load I've had to re-set the breakers twice; 4 breakers the first time, then a minute ago 6 breakers, including bedroom #1 which has not tripped before.

Seems the less electrical stuff we have on, the worst it is for breakers to trip...

I can not deal with this now, lost the whole weekend to entertaining our guests. Need to kill some weeds.

:banghead:

 

[spokane 1]

Its the ground....period. yank and clean the #2 copper leading out of your box to the ground rod. there is torques required on these wire screws as well.
a single ground rod may not be enough for a 200 amp panel install a second rod 6ft away from the first. or if you can find iron water pipes close by you can acorn thus the wire to this as well.

the power is backfeeding the main leg in searching for ground.

 

[teg]

Its the ground....period...

Definitely seems like it... one thing for sure, it's not the well pump. Guests used a bunch of water... and no problems.

 

[Mace Canute]

Little update: (I don't feel it's 100% figured out...) We have 7 people up here, showers, dishwasher going... NO breakers are tripping.

Will the one who said to pour water on the grounding rods... please pat yourself on your back. :drink: :dance1:


We had 4 inches of rain in a very short period of time... mini-mudslide and water deposited under our deck... 4-5" of nasty liquid. That's the only thing that's different... I used the "tester" mentioned before to check the outside outlets and they all said they were wired fine.

Plan now is to sink more grounding rods in the soil that stays moist... on the exposed side of the house. And plan to keep track of the breakers to see if this weekend was just a fluke. (electrical pun intended... sue me )

Now I need to let the mud dry up so I can removed it from under my covered deck...

That is not curing your problem but it is masking the problem.

 

[spokane 1]

Definitely seems like it... one thing for sure, it's not the well pump. Guests used a bunch of water... and no problems.

the only other thing that causes multiple breaker suicide in the gfci 15 amp 14 Gage world,,,, is wiring the common to the wrong side of the outlet in a 6 series outlet run.
this can be sniffed out using the harbor freight tool that identifies wrong wiring simply by plugging it in each outlet in the house.
Electrical Receptacle Tester with GFCI Diagnosis
the instructions are geared for 6th grade level .

the other major problem is the China brand...some electrical boxes are built so crappy a single breaker breaking can switch off the whole bank. It has to do with how well each breaker vibration is insulated from the other. just stay with good old American 200 amp boxes....GE, cutler hammer,Milbank,Siemens, are my go to boxes when I wire.

I took care of overly sensitive gfci breakers in a apartment complex by replacing them. It seems they went south after just being 10 years old.

many electricians are so fast they forget to shine or rough the wire varnish the #2 bare ground wire or they get sloppy at the acorn nut on the ground rod.....each item is required by code to be roughed and torqued hard enough to pierce the wire varnish. (most people have no clue the wires are coated in varnish before the vinyl coating goes on.)

 

[RBLapham]

In my previous house, probably to save money electric was run using 12 Ga 3 wire plus ground. The neutral was then shared between the 2 hot wires in the runs. When I tried to install a GFCI circuit breaker they popped all the time - each hot must have its own neutral for a GFCI to work.

 

[teg]

...tool that identifies wrong wiring simply by plugging it in each outlet in the house.


...with good old American 200 amp boxes....Siemens...

It is a Siemens, 200 amp box. Also, I do have that tool above and have check 95% of the circuits. Need to do a room by room inspection...

Got the name of 3 electricians... luckily, the guy who wired the house in the first place was not on the list.

 

[LD1]

In my previous house, probably to save money electric was run using 12 Ga 3 wire plus ground. The neutral was then shared between the 2 hot wires in the runs. When I tried to install a GFCI circuit breaker they popped all the time - each hot must have its own neutral for a GFCI to work.

For breakers, yes that is true.

What you have is a mwbc (multi-wire branch circuit). You can use/install GFI recepticals, but no go on the breakers.