Electrical question

[Aquattro]

A question for anyone that knows more about electrical than I, which should be everybody! Recently, say last three weeks, the power bar my lights are plugged into trips about 5 hours into running. Tried a new bar, same thing. This setup has been running unchanged for some time, say 5 or 6 months, and only recently this has happened. Nothing has been added. Would cooling for the ballasts help? although it ran fine in the hottest part of last summer.
Thoughts?

[scumchug]

Typically when ballasts start to loose their "stuff" they draw massive amounts of energy. Get a Kill-a-watt and test them independently to see if they are drawing more than they should.

[Aquattro]

These are electronic and 6 months old, is it possible they're drawing too much at this point?

[scumchug]

I wouldn't expect there to be any problems, but anything is possible I guess.

[Aquattro]

I think we have a meter at work, I'll bring it home and check.

[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.