circuit breaker randomly trips

its as basic as that, it does it randomly to, mostly when my computer is idling. my house was built in the 80's in ca and my particular room has never been rewired (so its all original)

things i have plugged in:

Computer (one in sig)
with 2 monitors
stereo speakers
laptop
printer
tivo (series 2)
old rca tv (its so old it only has cable in)
scanner
2 alarm clocks
2 lamps (there almost always on)
space heater (you know, the little ones on the floor that heat the whole room)
and the over head lights (they run on the same circuit)

most of this stuff i only turn on when i need it so... i cant figure it out, i've even had the circuit trip when all i had on was the computer... so any help is appreciated.

Could be a breaker getting weak. I've seen that before after they get some age on them. But that little space heater probably isn't helping any either. Most of those will draw 750-1500 watts, depending on the setting on them.

A 20 amp breaker will trip if it's running a constant 18 or greater AMPs. Another thing to consider is an arcfault (Something is shorting out at to low a wattage to trip the breaker right away but is constantly pulling power. To be honest, with a space heater on a circuit there should be no other plugs in that outlet and no more than a single lamp, radio or alarm on that whole circuit.

*Check that heater for a recall, I just heard about a major recall several units.
http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=2...call_walmart_brands_list_pose_fire_hazard.htm

Be safe

my suspicions of the heater have gotten higher now, my suspensions start when i turn it on... geez all the lights in the room get dimmer, and only go back to normal when i turn it off... think i might have to have it plug it in from a different room

it is sort of weird though, the whole room is on a single circuit

Chriscc123 said:

my suspicions of the heater have gotten higher now, my suspensions start when i turn it on... geez all the lights in the room get dimmer, and only go back to normal when i turn it off... think i might have to have it plug it in from a different room

it is sort of weird though, the whole room is on a single circuit

Click to expand...

I had a similar problem with my window AC in the summer. I ended up just running an extension cord from an outlet on an unused circuit. The AC unit (and I would guess your heater) say in the directions they should be put on a dedicated circuit since they use a lot of power.