On Friday, December 25, 2015 at 10:48:18 PM UTC-5, Don Y wrote:
On 12/25/2015 8:31 PM, IGot2P wrote:
Approximately 8 years ago I built (with the help of a contractor) a 1,200 sq.
ft. shop detached from our home (nice shop with central heat and air, half
bath, hot water, etc.).

Our home has a 200 amp box so I simply put in a 100 amp breaker and run it to a
sub panel in the new shop which has a 100 amp breaker box. Everything in both
the shop and house has worked fine since the beginning and still does but I did
find something somewhat unique.

I have one item in the shop that draws 23+ amps on a 115 volt circuit and to my
surprise had never popped a 20 amp circuit breaker. All outlets and lights are
wired with #12 wire so I know that 23+ amps is a bit too much but so be it.
Well, I moved the item a small amount and happened to plug it into a different
outlet which happened to be on a different breaker and it popped the breaker
after running for about 20 minutes. Tried it again and the same thing happened.
Out of curiosity I checked the voltage and that particular circuit (the one
that the breaker pops on) has 125 volts and all of the others run in the
115/117 range.

Anyone have a clue of how this could happen when they are all coming out of the
same box and are approximately the same distance from the box?

Not without your further clarifying the conditions under which you
are obtaining these measurements!


+1

If it's with no load, then it would suggest a possible problem with
a bad neutral connection. If it's with substantial load, then it
could be normal.