My New House & Workshop

[Curious Hound]

Today I was cooking something in the microwave and it kicked the breaker. WTF! Never did it before but it happened when it was 8 degrees out, there's 6-inches of snow, and the damn breaker box is outside. Reset the breaker and finished making dinner. I have no idea why it happened.

It would be good to go through your kitchen and find out which outlets are on which circuits and what size circuits they are (15amp or 20 amp). Then you will know how to avoid overloading a circuit. You probably need to have another circuit or 2 installed. Some microwaves can pull 1500 watts ~ 12.5 amps. It doesn't take much more to trip a 15amp circuit breaker. A toaster or toaster oven for your pop tarts will easily push a circuit over 20 amps with a microwave. Many of us also use a coffee maker which could do it too. In recent years, the refrigerator is required to be on it's own circuit. But your kitchen may be old enough to have it sharing with other things.

Outdoor breaker panels are actually pretty common, at least in the south. I don't like the idea. But it's not horrible.

 

[franklin2]

It may be on the same circuit as the refrigerator, and the frig compressor suddenly decided to come on at that time. Code is at least two circuits in a kitchen and they need to be ground fault type.

 

[Uncle Gump]

How do you cook dinner in a microwave oven?

 

[Curious Hound]

It may be on the same circuit as the refrigerator, and the frig compressor suddenly decided to come on at that time. Code is at least two circuits in a kitchen and they need to be ground fault type.

Exactly what I was thinking about the refrigerator. Concerning codes, though, judging by pictures of the house, it was probably built and wired before GFCI came about. So it probably doesn't conform to that. Any new work will need to conform.

We tend to use a lot of electrical appliances in the kitchen these days - microwave, toaster, coffee pot, air fryer, crock pot, waffle iron, mixer, blender and more. 2 circuits really doesn't cut it. I normally wire a kitchen with 2-3 outlet circuits along the counters. Then disposal, dishwasher, refrigerator, range hood,, etc. go on other circuits. You need to think about what items might be operated simultaneously and split the circuits up accordingly. Of course, maybe Jim doesn't do much cooking. So less will work fine.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Outdoor breaker panels are actually pretty common, at least in the south. I don't like the idea. But it's not horrible.

Pretty common around the farm.

I know they are around grain bin sites. I have a main breaker box on the lightpole that will kill everything on my place. One in the house of course and then there is one (old screw in fusebox) on the feedlot pole that runs the light out there and used to run all the heaters for the animal drinks.

How do you cook dinner in a microwave oven?

It is the only way to cook lobster...

 

[Uncle Gump]

It is the only way to cook lobster...

That looks more like supper... doesn't it?

 

[Curious Hound]

How do you cook dinner in a microwave oven?

By using microwave energy to penetrate the food and excite the water molecules in it to a higher energy level.

 

[Rick W]

Electrical work can add up. Maybe shift your diet to more pickles and simple things like soup, a half can at a time. Also, I’ve never tried it, but I’ve heard you can cook a whole chicken in a pickup somehow...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

That looks more like supper... doesn't it?

I have been known to have chocolate cake for dinner

 

[sgtsandman]

How do you cook dinner in a microwave oven?

 

[Shadowrider6661]

You know, they really make those frozen meals look good on the box. In the end, I sometimes think the box would taste better than its contents !

 

[Shadowrider6661]

When I was chasing electrical circuits, I picked up one of those wireless testers that you plug into an outlet and the other part, it looks like a fat pen, gets run across the breakers and lights up when the circuits are a match. If I were a more intelligent person, that statement would have been better explained. Someone out there probably knows what tool I'm talking about.

 

[Snoranger]

That looks more like supper... doesn't it?

That depends on where you live... some places it’s called dinner and supper doesn’t exist.

 

[franklin2]

When I was chasing electrical circuits, I picked up one of those wireless testers that you plug into an outlet and the other part, it looks like a fat pen, gets run across the breakers and lights up when the circuits are a match. If I were a more intelligent person, that statement would have been better explained. Someone out there probably knows what tool I'm talking about.

Harbor freight sells one of these cheap. It works very well, I use one at work. One thing to remember, when you reset it, it's on its highest sensitivity and may pick up more than one breaker. But you keep going over all the breakers over and over and it automatically lowers it's sensitivity till it finally picks out the correct breaker. One good thing about the transmitter being powered by the circuit you are looking for, you can then turn the breaker off to see if the beeping stops, to verify that is the correct circuit.

Circuit Breaker Detective

Amazing deals on this Circuit Breaker Detective at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

 

[RonD]

Code here is that each plug in a duplex outlet in the kitchen can only share with another plug of a different duplex outlet in the kitchen
So the upper and lower plugin are on different breakers in the one duplex outlet

So if coffee maker and toaster are both plugged into one duplex outlet they are on different breakers

The frig should not be on any kitchen counter plug circuits