On 5/6/2012 8:59 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
wrote in message ...

Your thinking sounds right, but breakers respond in milliseconds so lots
of
things could have been happening on a one-time basis when the power came
back on. It would be interesting to know what the average load is on that
breaker.

Tomsic

Breakers do not always respond in milliseconds. Most common ones work by
heat. The more current that is passed through them, the faster they will
trip.
If several electrronic devices or motors try to start back up at the same
time, the breaker could be overloaded. If they are powered up one at a
time,the breaker may not trip.
Many devices require more current to start than they do a few seconds or so
after they are startred.



Neon lights would be like that too. They would need more current to
intialilly come on than to stay on.