Electrical question

[banditpowdercoat]

Originally Posted by mike31154

Any idea what the nominal wattage of your lighting system currently is? What does the lighting consist of, MH, T5HO, VHO or a mix? Most power bars should be rated to handle close to 15 amps, or around 1800 watts, which is normally the maximum available through a 15 amp circuit in your home. That would take a lot of lighting to trip. I suspect that since it takes up to 5 hours to trip and it does this with both power bars you've tried, there is a problem with one of your lighting components. Then again, it's not out of the question that both power bars are somewhat faulty. What brand are they, same? Do they have an ON/OFF switch and a circuit breaker, or just a lighted switch. Surge protection capabilities?

Without a tester and complete specifications of the components, it's almost impossible to troubleshoot something of this nature.

It's acctually 12 amps on a 15 amp circuit. You can not load a breaker more than 80% of its trip rating. So, that said, a 15 amp breaker will trip at 15amps short circuit, But for overload, it will trip at 12 amps continous.
But thats still 1300 watts, thats a bit. But, 3 400W lights, and if ballasts/lights are getting weak. Also, I dont know how accurate the powerbar breakers are. They could be tripping at 10 amps??