{"id":1983,"date":"2010-12-06T08:40:43","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T12:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=3928"},"modified":"2023-09-23T09:23:19","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T13:23:19","slug":"the-breaker-keeps-tripping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2010\/12\/the-breaker-keeps-tripping\/","title":{"rendered":"The breaker keeps tripping…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is yet another addition of the “Burned up Sh*t” collection:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"GE<\/a>
GE 30 Amp 3 pole breaker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is a breaker from a 5-ton AC compressor. \u00a0Back in the bad old days when I was the Director of Engineering for a 28-station group Headquartered in Harrisburg, PA, I received a phone call from one of the local engineers. \u00a0He stated that the studio AC unit compressor had burned out again and the breaker kept tripping. \u00a0What did I think, asked him. \u00a0I thought perhaps he should dig a little deeper and determine why<\/em> the breaker was tripping before throwing another AC compressor at it. \u00a0When are you coming to town again, he cheerfully inquired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, I get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started by calling the HVAC company to inquire what had gone wrong with the compressors. \u00a0Winding shorted to the case for both units was the answer received. \u00a0It being July and mighty hot out, the various worker bees in the studio were feeling inconvenienced by the sweat in their eyes and dripping on their work, etc. \u00a0I called the local manager and asked for a hotel room, I’d be up tomorrow. \u00a0Then I called the HVAC guy back and asked in to meet me at the studio tomorrow afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon arrival the next morning, I found the fifth-floor studios to be hot, as reported. \u00a0I trip to the roof location proved to be hotter still. \u00a0I tested the voltages at the compressor unit with a DVM and everything looked good. \u00a0A trip down to the utility room found the electrical panel in reasonable shape. \u00a0Then the local engineering guy chimed in, “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, the breaker hums and gets hot when the compressor is on.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s always that little bit of missing information…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took the breaker out and sure enough, the fingers were all arched and nasty-looking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I replaced the breaker, the HVAC guy showed up, with a new compressor and the studios began to cool off around 3 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, I have specified Square D QO bolt-on breakers for new installations, especially for heavy loads like AC units, transmitters, and so on. They are a little more expensive, but in light of two AC compressors, the unscheduled trip out of town, and the grumbling staff, it is better to pay upfront for better equipment than to put up with preventable outages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is yet another addition of the “Burned up Sh*t” collection: It is a breaker from a 5-ton AC compressor. \u00a0Back in the bad old days when I was the Director of Engineering for a 28-station group Headquartered in Harrisburg, PA, I received a phone call from one of the local engineers. \u00a0He stated that … Continue reading The breaker keeps tripping…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,21],"tags":[161,80,160],"class_list":["post-1983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maintenance","category-tales-of-disaster","tag-breakers","tag-burnout","tag-hvac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1983"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12447,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions\/12447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}