Steve wrote:
My 3 upstairs bedrooms are on one 15 amp circuit. Occasionally when my
daughter uses her hair dryer the breaker will trip (usually only when one
room has the AC running.)
Yesterday we lost power in all three room but the breaker did not trip. even
flipping the breaker did nothing to restore power. I checked and there was
power at the breaker, I went upstairs to what I believe is the first outlet
on the circuit. It had a small fan and a window AC plugged in. When I
unplugged the fan the power came on in all 3 rooms. I suspected a problem
with the fan. I tried the fan in another circuit and it worked fine. Later
that night my wife unplugged the AC from the same outlet and we lost all
power on that circuit. when she plugged the AC back in power was
restored?????

Could this be a bad outlet??? My other concern is some varmints have gotten
into the attic, squirrels I think, I've been trying to catch them in a trap
with no luck yet, They did steal my bait though!!!
I'm afraid of them chewing on the wires...
The attic is almost impossible to get into. I wont fit thought the rafters
to get up there anymore.

Any advice on the electrical problem??? Could it be chewed wires or could it
be a bad outlet???

TIA

Steve

It sure could be a poor connection at that outlet, and it could be
dangerous: if the connection is arcing it could generate heat without
tripping the breaker. Kill the power to the circuit by tripping the
breaker, and have that outlet inspected.

If the wires have been backstabbed instead of screwed down, consider
having all the outlets in the house reworked to use the screw
terminals.

Also consider having the breaker that's been tripping replaced with an
arc-fault (AFCI) breaker. It won't trip any less, in fact it may trip
more, but it'll protect you from arcs in these bedroom outlets. AFCI's
are now mandatory for new work on all bedroom circuits in most places
in the US and Canada, to protect against exactly this risk.

The problem with the tripping won't go away until you have a dedicated
circuit put in for the A/C and/or the hairdryer. 15A among several
bedrooms including A/C and a hairdryer isn't nearly enough.

Chip C
Toronto