s219
Super Member
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2011
- Messages
- 8,608
- Location
- Virginia USA
- Tractor
- Kubota L3200, Deere X380, Kubota RTV-X
Anybody have a good procedure to test a breaker to make sure it trips?
My two year old daughter, who has all the makings of a tinkerer like me, managed to drop a penny across the two prongs of a night light plugged into the wall. The penny melted about halfway down the prongs before the whole thing fell off the wall. Pics below. This may actually be a good thing as she seems to have no interest in wall outlets now. Anyhow, the breaker on that circuit never tripped, which is not unreasonable, but I sure would like to verify that it will trip somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 amps, just for assurance. I have never run into a safe procedure to test that though.
The only thing I could think to try was put my compressor on the end of a long extension cord -- I know that SOB will trip a breaker when I am in the middle of a project if I don't have a heavy enough cord -- but damned if it didn't start (albeit with minor grumbling) on every 15A circuit I tried in the house, including the one in question. I didn't want to do that more than 3-4 times since it's not good for the motor.
By the way, I tore apart the old outlet when I replaced it with a new one, and there was no sign of arcing or damage inside the outlet, and all the wiring looked fine. So I do think this was a relatively quick event with only external arcing, and the nightlight must have popped out of the wall very fast. Our only clue as to the event was my daughter coming and telling mommy that she "heard a noise". She's a real punk... All of this happened in the space of 30-40 seconds when my wife left the room to refill my daughter's zippy cup with juice.
Based on the date on the penny, it's a version that is primarily zinc with copper plating. I have no idea how well zinc conducts, but the penny would have needed enough resistance to keep the current below 15A if it didn't trip the breaker, assuming the breaker is OK. The brass prongs on the nightlight had small divots, but it seems the penny bore the brunt of this encounter with electricity. I sure wouldn't trust a modern penny to bypass a fuse like people did in the old days!
My two year old daughter, who has all the makings of a tinkerer like me, managed to drop a penny across the two prongs of a night light plugged into the wall. The penny melted about halfway down the prongs before the whole thing fell off the wall. Pics below. This may actually be a good thing as she seems to have no interest in wall outlets now. Anyhow, the breaker on that circuit never tripped, which is not unreasonable, but I sure would like to verify that it will trip somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 amps, just for assurance. I have never run into a safe procedure to test that though.
The only thing I could think to try was put my compressor on the end of a long extension cord -- I know that SOB will trip a breaker when I am in the middle of a project if I don't have a heavy enough cord -- but damned if it didn't start (albeit with minor grumbling) on every 15A circuit I tried in the house, including the one in question. I didn't want to do that more than 3-4 times since it's not good for the motor.
By the way, I tore apart the old outlet when I replaced it with a new one, and there was no sign of arcing or damage inside the outlet, and all the wiring looked fine. So I do think this was a relatively quick event with only external arcing, and the nightlight must have popped out of the wall very fast. Our only clue as to the event was my daughter coming and telling mommy that she "heard a noise". She's a real punk... All of this happened in the space of 30-40 seconds when my wife left the room to refill my daughter's zippy cup with juice.
Based on the date on the penny, it's a version that is primarily zinc with copper plating. I have no idea how well zinc conducts, but the penny would have needed enough resistance to keep the current below 15A if it didn't trip the breaker, assuming the breaker is OK. The brass prongs on the nightlight had small divots, but it seems the penny bore the brunt of this encounter with electricity. I sure wouldn't trust a modern penny to bypass a fuse like people did in the old days!