Hi B, hope you are having a nice day

On 28-Jul-03 At About 13:44:09, B wrote to All
Subject: AC tripped at main breaker.....please advise

B From: "B"

B It could be bad to refrigerate the coil and not blow air across it -- it
B might "freeze" and break.

Unless you have a chiller ( not likely on a residential system ) this is not
possible.

B Just ask your installer why the outdoor unit would be
B buzzing while the indoor unit worked

as in my post to him it was the contactor pulled in.

B -- why they are not wired to
B know that the other is down (like I think mine is).

Probably not. it is not normal to wire a residential system that way




-= HvacTech2 =-


... "Cross country skiing is great if you live in a small country."- s.w.

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Hi B, hope you are having a nice day

On 28-Jul-03 At About 13:44:09, B wrote to All
Subject: AC tripped at main breaker.....please advise

B From: "B"

B It could be bad to refrigerate the coil and not blow air across it -- it
B might "freeze" and break.

Unless you have a chiller ( not likely on a residential system ) this is not
possible.

B Just ask your installer why the outdoor unit would be
B buzzing while the indoor unit worked

as in my post to him it was the contactor pulled in.

B -- why they are not wired to
B know that the other is down (like I think mine is).

Probably not. it is not normal to wire a residential system that way




-= HvacTech2 =-


... "Cross country skiing is great if you live in a small country."- s.w.

___ TagDude 0.92á+[DM]
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++
spam protection measure, Please remove the 33 to send e-mail

The outside compresser should keep the indoor coil cold, and if it wasn't
doing that, there's no damage done by blowing air across warm coil and
circulating it through your house. It could be bad to refrigerate the coil
and not blow air across it -- it might "freeze" and break. Just ask your
installer why the outdoor unit would be buzzing while the indoor unit
worked -- why they are not wired to know that the other is down (like I
think mine is).

"Kerry" wrote in message
om...
I am hoping you can all help me. Here is the story....

We live in a 1.5 year old house. Our AC coils our in our atic, then
we have the blower unit thing outdoors (sorry I don't know the real
names of these things).

We were away for the weekend and left the AC set at 85 degrees. It
was a hot weekend and the outside temp got up over 100 (probably
around 104). Anyway, when we returned home last night, our house was
a very warm 87 degrees. The fan was blowing but no cold air was
coming out. So I went outside and the outdoor portion of the AC unit
was not on. I put my ear up to it and could hear a faint electical
buzz. So it was getting power. Then I passed the condensation drain.
The ground was wet, so the AC had worked properly at least sometime
in the weekend. My next step was to go to the main breaker panel.
Sure enough, the AC was tripped. I reset and it is working fine so
far today.

A few questions....
1) What does the breaker control? The fan in the house was still
running and the unit outside still seemed to have power (since I could
hear the slight buzz). Does the breaker just control the coils?

2) What can cause the breaker to trip? And is that mean something
really bad is wrong?

3) The fact that it tripped concerns me. Is this something that
happens sometimes in really hot weather or is it more likely a problem
with my AC?

4) I have no idea how long the fan in my house had been running
before I came home. My guess is that it had been running for a long
time (many hours if not a whole day) trying to cool the house without
luck. Was that really bad for it? We let it rest overnight before we
tried it this morning.

Thanks all for the help. Out house is still under warranty, but since
it hasn't tripped again, I am not sure what to do. Please advise.

Kerry

Kerry wrote:

I am hoping you can all help me. Here is the story....

We live in a 1.5 year old house. Our AC coils our in our atic, then
we have the blower unit thing outdoors (sorry I don't know the real
names of these things).

We were away for the weekend and left the AC set at 85 degrees. It
was a hot weekend and the outside temp got up over 100 (probably
around 104). Anyway, when we returned home last night, our house was
a very warm 87 degrees. The fan was blowing but no cold air was
coming out. So I went outside and the outdoor portion of the AC unit
was not on. I put my ear up to it and could hear a faint electical
buzz. So it was getting power. Then I passed the condensation drain.
The ground was wet, so the AC had worked properly at least sometime
in the weekend. My next step was to go to the main breaker panel.
Sure enough, the AC was tripped. I reset and it is working fine so
far today.

A few questions....
1) What does the breaker control? The fan in the house was still
running and the unit outside still seemed to have power (since I could
hear the slight buzz). Does the breaker just control the coils?

2) What can cause the breaker to trip? And is that mean something
really bad is wrong?

3) The fact that it tripped concerns me. Is this something that
happens sometimes in really hot weather or is it more likely a problem
with my AC?

4) I have no idea how long the fan in my house had been running
before I came home. My guess is that it had been running for a long
time (many hours if not a whole day) trying to cool the house without
luck. Was that really bad for it? We let it rest overnight before we
tried it this morning.

Thanks all for the help. Out house is still under warranty, but since
it hasn't tripped again, I am not sure what to do. Please advise.

Kerry
could have been something un related to the a/c like i had one year on a
sunday, a very small spider must have been in the wrong place at the
wrong time... it was caught in the realay contacts to the compressor...
blew the fuse and the compressor would not work.. i changed out the fuse
and it still did not get current.. i checked the relay and found the
contacts pitted pretty bad with 1/2 of a spider on it... the other half
was burned up... i was lucky as the old relay was the type you could
service.. i just turned the double sided relay over and used the other
side of the contact and it worked fine....

Kerry wrote:

I am hoping you can all help me. Here is the story....

We live in a 1.5 year old house. Our AC coils our in our atic, then
we have the blower unit thing outdoors (sorry I don't know the real
names of these things).

We were away for the weekend and left the AC set at 85 degrees. It
was a hot weekend and the outside temp got up over 100 (probably
around 104). Anyway, when we returned home last night, our house was
a very warm 87 degrees. The fan was blowing but no cold air was
coming out. So I went outside and the outdoor portion of the AC unit
was not on. I put my ear up to it and could hear a faint electical
buzz. So it was getting power. Then I passed the condensation drain.
The ground was wet, so the AC had worked properly at least sometime
in the weekend. My next step was to go to the main breaker panel.
Sure enough, the AC was tripped. I reset and it is working fine so
far today.

A few questions....
1) What does the breaker control? The fan in the house was still
running and the unit outside still seemed to have power (since I could
hear the slight buzz). Does the breaker just control the coils?

2) What can cause the breaker to trip? And is that mean something
really bad is wrong?

3) The fact that it tripped concerns me. Is this something that
happens sometimes in really hot weather or is it more likely a problem
with my AC?

4) I have no idea how long the fan in my house had been running
before I came home. My guess is that it had been running for a long
time (many hours if not a whole day) trying to cool the house without
luck. Was that really bad for it? We let it rest overnight before we
tried it this morning.

Thanks all for the help. Out house is still under warranty, but since
it hasn't tripped again, I am not sure what to do. Please advise.

Kerry
could have been something un related to the a/c like i had one year on a
sunday, a very small spider must have been in the wrong place at the
wrong time... it was caught in the realay contacts to the compressor...
blew the fuse and the compressor would not work.. i changed out the fuse
and it still did not get current.. i checked the relay and found the
contacts pitted pretty bad with 1/2 of a spider on it... the other half
was burned up... i was lucky as the old relay was the type you could
service.. i just turned the double sided relay over and used the other
side of the contact and it worked fine....

So our breaker tripped again today. I guess we will have to leave it
off until it gets fixed. The air conditioning people said that it is
usually a bad breaker. Do breakers really go bad that easily and
often? Hopefully that is really all that it is. Any other things
that can cause the breaker on the AC to trip (more than once)?

Thanks again!
Kerry



(Kerry) wrote in message . com...
I am hoping you can all help me. Here is the story....

We live in a 1.5 year old house. Our AC coils our in our atic, then
we have the blower unit thing outdoors (sorry I don't know the real
names of these things).

We were away for the weekend and left the AC set at 85 degrees. It
was a hot weekend and the outside temp got up over 100 (probably
around 104). Anyway, when we returned home last night, our house was
a very warm 87 degrees. The fan was blowing but no cold air was
coming out. So I went outside and the outdoor portion of the AC unit
was not on. I put my ear up to it and could hear a faint electical
buzz. So it was getting power. Then I passed the condensation drain.
The ground was wet, so the AC had worked properly at least sometime
in the weekend. My next step was to go to the main breaker panel.
Sure enough, the AC was tripped. I reset and it is working fine so
far today.

A few questions....
1) What does the breaker control? The fan in the house was still
running and the unit outside still seemed to have power (since I could
hear the slight buzz). Does the breaker just control the coils?

2) What can cause the breaker to trip? And is that mean something
really bad is wrong?

3) The fact that it tripped concerns me. Is this something that
happens sometimes in really hot weather or is it more likely a problem
with my AC?

4) I have no idea how long the fan in my house had been running
before I came home. My guess is that it had been running for a long
time (many hours if not a whole day) trying to cool the house without
luck. Was that really bad for it? We let it rest overnight before we
tried it this morning.

Thanks all for the help. Out house is still under warranty, but since
it hasn't tripped again, I am not sure what to do. Please advise.

Kerry

So our breaker tripped again today. I guess we will have to leave it
off until it gets fixed. The air conditioning people said that it is
usually a bad breaker. Do breakers really go bad that easily and
often? Hopefully that is really all that it is. Any other things
that can cause the breaker on the AC to trip (more than once)?

Thanks again!
Kerry



(Kerry) wrote in message . com...
I am hoping you can all help me. Here is the story....

We live in a 1.5 year old house. Our AC coils our in our atic, then
we have the blower unit thing outdoors (sorry I don't know the real
names of these things).

We were away for the weekend and left the AC set at 85 degrees. It
was a hot weekend and the outside temp got up over 100 (probably
around 104). Anyway, when we returned home last night, our house was
a very warm 87 degrees. The fan was blowing but no cold air was
coming out. So I went outside and the outdoor portion of the AC unit
was not on. I put my ear up to it and could hear a faint electical
buzz. So it was getting power. Then I passed the condensation drain.
The ground was wet, so the AC had worked properly at least sometime
in the weekend. My next step was to go to the main breaker panel.
Sure enough, the AC was tripped. I reset and it is working fine so
far today.

A few questions....
1) What does the breaker control? The fan in the house was still
running and the unit outside still seemed to have power (since I could
hear the slight buzz). Does the breaker just control the coils?

2) What can cause the breaker to trip? And is that mean something
really bad is wrong?

3) The fact that it tripped concerns me. Is this something that
happens sometimes in really hot weather or is it more likely a problem
with my AC?

4) I have no idea how long the fan in my house had been running
before I came home. My guess is that it had been running for a long
time (many hours if not a whole day) trying to cool the house without
luck. Was that really bad for it? We let it rest overnight before we
tried it this morning.

Thanks all for the help. Out house is still under warranty, but since
it hasn't tripped again, I am not sure what to do. Please advise.

Kerry

In alt.home.repair on 28 Jul 2003 16:05:00 -0700
(Kerry) posted:

So our breaker tripped again today. I guess we will have to leave it
off until it gets fixed. The air conditioning people said that it is
usually a bad breaker. Do breakers really go bad that easily and
often? Hopefully that is really all that it is. Any other things
that can cause the breaker on the AC to trip (more than once)?

A lot of things either fail early on or last for a long time. And of
course some of them are in the middle!

I don't use my AC much, 10 or 20 days a year, but the circuiit breaker
on my AC trips about once a year. I reset it and it can last until
the next year. Once it tripped 2 or 3 times in the season.

I trimmed the grass at the condenser, tried to straighten some of the
fins, changed the air filter, but I don't think any of that did
anything.

The worst thing for me is if the cb trips and it keeps getting hotter
and hotter inside and I don't realize the AC isn't working. Each year
I get a little quicker about catching this.

Thanks again!
Kerry



(Kerry) wrote in message . com...
I am hoping you can all help me. Here is the story....

We live in a 1.5 year old house. Our AC coils our in our atic, then
we have the blower unit thing outdoors (sorry I don't know the real
names of these things).

We were away for the weekend and left the AC set at 85 degrees. It
was a hot weekend and the outside temp got up over 100 (probably
around 104). Anyway, when we returned home last night, our house was
a very warm 87 degrees. The fan was blowing but no cold air was
coming out. So I went outside and the outdoor portion of the AC unit
was not on. I put my ear up to it and could hear a faint electical
buzz. So it was getting power. Then I passed the condensation drain.
The ground was wet, so the AC had worked properly at least sometime
in the weekend. My next step was to go to the main breaker panel.
Sure enough, the AC was tripped. I reset and it is working fine so
far today.

A few questions....
1) What does the breaker control? The fan in the house was still
running and the unit outside still seemed to have power (since I could
hear the slight buzz). Does the breaker just control the coils?

2) What can cause the breaker to trip? And is that mean something
really bad is wrong?

3) The fact that it tripped concerns me. Is this something that
happens sometimes in really hot weather or is it more likely a problem
with my AC?

4) I have no idea how long the fan in my house had been running
before I came home. My guess is that it had been running for a long
time (many hours if not a whole day) trying to cool the house without
luck. Was that really bad for it? We let it rest overnight before we
tried it this morning.

Thanks all for the help. Out house is still under warranty, but since
it hasn't tripped again, I am not sure what to do. Please advise.

Kerry


Meirman

If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.

Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

In alt.home.repair on 28 Jul 2003 16:05:00 -0700
(Kerry) posted:

So our breaker tripped again today. I guess we will have to leave it
off until it gets fixed. The air conditioning people said that it is
usually a bad breaker. Do breakers really go bad that easily and
often? Hopefully that is really all that it is. Any other things
that can cause the breaker on the AC to trip (more than once)?

A lot of things either fail early on or last for a long time. And of
course some of them are in the middle!

I don't use my AC much, 10 or 20 days a year, but the circuiit breaker
on my AC trips about once a year. I reset it and it can last until
the next year. Once it tripped 2 or 3 times in the season.

I trimmed the grass at the condenser, tried to straighten some of the
fins, changed the air filter, but I don't think any of that did
anything.

The worst thing for me is if the cb trips and it keeps getting hotter
and hotter inside and I don't realize the AC isn't working. Each year
I get a little quicker about catching this.

Thanks again!
Kerry



(Kerry) wrote in message . com...
I am hoping you can all help me. Here is the story....

We live in a 1.5 year old house. Our AC coils our in our atic, then
we have the blower unit thing outdoors (sorry I don't know the real
names of these things).

We were away for the weekend and left the AC set at 85 degrees. It
was a hot weekend and the outside temp got up over 100 (probably
around 104). Anyway, when we returned home last night, our house was
a very warm 87 degrees. The fan was blowing but no cold air was
coming out. So I went outside and the outdoor portion of the AC unit
was not on. I put my ear up to it and could hear a faint electical
buzz. So it was getting power. Then I passed the condensation drain.
The ground was wet, so the AC had worked properly at least sometime
in the weekend. My next step was to go to the main breaker panel.
Sure enough, the AC was tripped. I reset and it is working fine so
far today.

A few questions....
1) What does the breaker control? The fan in the house was still
running and the unit outside still seemed to have power (since I could
hear the slight buzz). Does the breaker just control the coils?

2) What can cause the breaker to trip? And is that mean something
really bad is wrong?

3) The fact that it tripped concerns me. Is this something that
happens sometimes in really hot weather or is it more likely a problem
with my AC?

4) I have no idea how long the fan in my house had been running
before I came home. My guess is that it had been running for a long
time (many hours if not a whole day) trying to cool the house without
luck. Was that really bad for it? We let it rest overnight before we
tried it this morning.

Thanks all for the help. Out house is still under warranty, but since
it hasn't tripped again, I am not sure what to do. Please advise.

Kerry


Meirman

If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.

Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

In alt.home.repair on Wed, 30 Jul 2003 18:07:31 GMT "Tim Fischer"
posted:


"meirman" wrote in message
.. .
I don't use my AC much, 10 or 20 days a year, but the circuiit breaker
on my AC trips about once a year. I reset it and it can last until
the next year. Once it tripped 2 or 3 times in the season.

This is not normal, and you should get it checked. I've lived in homes with
central air for years with nary a tripped breaker.

Thanks. Maybe it is a weak breaker that I should replace.

-Tim



Meirman

If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.

Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

In alt.home.repair on Wed, 30 Jul 2003 18:07:31 GMT "Tim Fischer"
posted:


"meirman" wrote in message
.. .
I don't use my AC much, 10 or 20 days a year, but the circuiit breaker
on my AC trips about once a year. I reset it and it can last until
the next year. Once it tripped 2 or 3 times in the season.

This is not normal, and you should get it checked. I've lived in homes with
central air for years with nary a tripped breaker.

Thanks. Maybe it is a weak breaker that I should replace.

-Tim



Meirman

If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.

Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

What is amperage draw on outside unit label, and what size breaker
its pretty common for the wrong breaker to be installed due to startup current

also the buzzing you mentioned on outside unit is 24v to power contactor supplied from inside unit

if your pretty knowledgable w/ electrical then disconnect pwr theninspect the
contacts on the contactor 1 or more may have a dead spot or if it looks like
it's gotten hot replace it.

The slight buzzing was probably the relay in the operated state due the
the thermostat calling for cool. However, as there was no power to the
outside unit (compressor/condenser), it couldn't run. As for why the
breaker tripped, there might have been a brown out condition or a bunch
of on-off-on-off power failures. Many newer units protect against both
of there, however, there are probably some cheap, builder's special
units that don't have the protection.

B wrote:
The outside compresser should keep the indoor coil cold, and if it wasn't
doing that, there's no damage done by blowing air across warm coil and
circulating it through your house. It could be bad to refrigerate the coil
and not blow air across it -- it might "freeze" and break. Just ask your
installer why the outdoor unit would be buzzing while the indoor unit
worked -- why they are not wired to know that the other is down (like I
think mine is).

"Kerry" wrote in message
om...

I am hoping you can all help me. Here is the story....

We live in a 1.5 year old house. Our AC coils our in our atic, then
we have the blower unit thing outdoors (sorry I don't know the real
names of these things).

We were away for the weekend and left the AC set at 85 degrees. It
was a hot weekend and the outside temp got up over 100 (probably
around 104). Anyway, when we returned home last night, our house was
a very warm 87 degrees. The fan was blowing but no cold air was
coming out. So I went outside and the outdoor portion of the AC unit
was not on. I put my ear up to it and could hear a faint electical
buzz. So it was getting power. Then I passed the condensation drain.
The ground was wet, so the AC had worked properly at least sometime
in the weekend. My next step was to go to the main breaker panel.
Sure enough, the AC was tripped. I reset and it is working fine so
far today.

A few questions....
1) What does the breaker control? The fan in the house was still
running and the unit outside still seemed to have power (since I could
hear the slight buzz). Does the breaker just control the coils?

2) What can cause the breaker to trip? And is that mean something
really bad is wrong?

3) The fact that it tripped concerns me. Is this something that
happens sometimes in really hot weather or is it more likely a problem
with my AC?

4) I have no idea how long the fan in my house had been running
before I came home. My guess is that it had been running for a long
time (many hours if not a whole day) trying to cool the house without
luck. Was that really bad for it? We let it rest overnight before we
tried it this morning.

Thanks all for the help. Out house is still under warranty, but since
it hasn't tripped again, I am not sure what to do. Please advise.

Kerry