On Sunday, May 6, 2012 5:01:49 PM UTC-4, (unknown) wrote:
Last night I was at a local tavern when the power went out in a large
section of town. This was probably due to a storm outdoors. The power
was only out for about 2 minutes. When it came back on, one wall
containing several neon beer signs, a jukebox, and 4 video games did not
come back on, while the rest of the building was fine. The bartender
found that the breaker for that one wall had tripped, and had to reset
it. Once reset, everything was fine.

I dont understand why a power outage would cause that breaker to
trip????

My only thought is that this circuit is drawing near it's maximum
amperage capacity for that breaker, and the surge of all those devices
caused it to trip. Yet, if this is the case, why did it not trip when
it was reset? The surge would be the same..... However, I got to
thinking that when the whole section of town was turned back on, that
the voltage would be low for a few seconds due to all the loads, and the
lower voltage to those devices would cause then to attempt to compensate
by drawing more amps...... Then the thought would be whether it's the
electronics in the jukebox and video games, or the high voltage
transformers on the neon signs that would draw the excess current?
Does this make sense?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks

maybe just replace the breaker. breaker age/fatigue could have it tripping at say 12 amps instead of 15. use a "kill a watt" meter at any outlet. electricians use a clamp on ammeter at the panel. test each device to match their wattage plates. you can call the power company on a slow day to check their power lines to the building meter for any damage. you can request a replacement power meter from the company.