I am not sure if I have a wiring problem or an appliance problem. I own a 100 year old house that I just purchased. The hydro panel was just replaced with a 100 amp circuit breaker unit. Much of the old wiring has what looks like GFI units between it and the new panel. There is some newer wiring as well. The old wiring does not show any grounding when I plug my tester into the socket. I pulled out the outlet and see a ground wire attached to the box but I have no idea if the other end is hooked up or not. I suspect that is why the electrician hooked up these GFI-looking boxes. I have no way of tracing the wiring as all the old stuff is on the 2nd floor. Anyhow, I bought one of those new portable air conditioners. It has an "arc-shield" plug on the end. It looks like a gfi too but after some researching on the web, it is designed to pick up unwanted arcing in the circuit and trip like a circuit breaker. Well, the damn thing keeps tripping-whether its plugged into the old wiring or the new wiring (which has all the proper grounds etc). Sometimes there is a pattern (eg:turning on our microwave even though it is on another circuit), other times it will do it steady for about 20 minutes then run fine for hours. I am now a bit worried that I might have a wire arcing somewhere in my house. Or could it be: a) we have been experiencing a heat wave and the power companies have been going on that they are maxed out and I wonder if there is a drop in the power coming into my house b) the arc shield plug is just too sensitive and trips too easily. c)the air conditioner has an internal problem If it is my wiring, how the heck to I test for an arcing wire? I read on the Texas Instruments website (they designed this plug) that some circuit breakers are too slow to trip during some arc events . Any help would be appreciated! Todd
Thus will be hard... but I'll try 1st, it sounds like a non grounded outlet was replaced by a grounded outlet without running the separate ground wire. Someone may have done this so all modern cords could plug in without an adapter. And if there is a wire from the metal handy box to the grounded outlet, that simply will do nothing. A wire needs to be connected there to a water pipe, then you will have a functioning ground. 2nd, the GFI's are installed in garages, basements, kitchens, bathrooms, outside outside circuits, etc, and will work as designed even without the ground properly connected. The GFI compares the current entering and current leaving a circuit, any imbalance and she tripps...(though it is safer to also have them properly grounded. Sorry, but my guess is: D). When the home was rewired, one or more neutral wires were mixed (or confused) with one or more positive wires. A good experienced electrician with the right testers should be able to correct it, but it might take a while. There are a lot of hack electricians out there, also some work done 25 years ago was fine for that time, but times have changed and outdated their work. Take the a/c units over to a friends and verify they work properly elswhere. Make sure the place has modern electric. :TU:
In Canada,new standard for bedroom circuits recently has been to use arc-fault breakers in new homes. Detects arc faults in two conductor appliance cord, lamps, radios, etc. & trips out. Breakers appear like the GFCI units.Not sure if these are used in the US. Dan is right on the grounding issue. Ground is just that....ground. The neutral is grounded at the panel via a ground rod, water main, ground plate. Application varies with local codes. A bond wire from the outlet to the box & then nothing else is only meant to decieve. you need a real bond to ground.
