Blew my breaker, plug grounded?

So long story short my timer is set to come on at 6am. I got up 4:30 all was good. 7,8am by ole lady said we had no power to half the place. The breaker for my room (bedroom 3) is stuck in the middle, and the main lights to my home do not come on. Living room, bathroom, etc. my room..... some outlets work. My light outlets do not.

I blocked my room off for obvious reasons, and an electrician checked all plugs except in my room.... all were good. So I’ve obviously put too much on one socket or something I have no idea. Anyway.... what do I do?

Only plan is to break my room down the best I can and show the guy the plug that I know has to be messed up. Any way I can safely fix this? Remove cover and then....?


don’t have power to half my home over this shit. And all is unplugged now obviously

when you flip the breaker off and back on, does everything in the house work except one receptacle in your grow room? or does it trip immediatly.

Moabfighter said:

So long story short my timer is set to come on at 6am. I got up 4:30 all was good. 7,8am by ole lady said we had no power to half the place. The breaker for my room (bedroom 3) is stuck in the middle, and the main lights to my home do not come on. Living room, bathroom, etc. my room..... some outlets work. My light outlets do not.

I blocked my room off for obvious reasons, and an electrician checked all plugs except in my room.... all were good. So I’ve obviously put too much on one socket or something I have no idea. Anyway.... what do I do?

Only plan is to break my room down the best I can and show the guy the plug that I know has to be messed up. Any way I can safely fix this? Remove cover and then....?


don’t have power to half my home over this shit. And all is unplugged now obviously

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Sorry to laugh, but you definitely overloaded the circuit. How many watts do you have running? @Renfro is a sparky, maybe he can help, or at least get a good laugh, lol.

Probably a bad breaker if it won't reset. Flip it all the way off and then on and see if it works. If not, replace it. Do not oversize it!

Spread your load out using the other circuit in the room that did not go off with the breaker.

Renfro said:

Probably a bad breaker if it won't reset. Flip it all the way off and then on and see if it works. If not, replace it. Do not oversize it!

Spread your load out using the other circuit in the room that did not go off with the breaker.

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Electrician removed the breaker box cover, said breaker was good. With some meter. Tested many plugs with same meter.... all good. I hid my grow room door with a large blanket and tacks to make it look natural. He was stumped. I wasn’t stumped. I know the plug that is blown. The main one that housed the electricity for my quantum boards and drivers and fans. Many fans. And timer. Timer on one plug, surge protector with the whole rack full on the plug under it. I’m am idiot. It’s been working fine for months..... who knew.

Edit everything is unplugged BTW to still no resolution. The breaker just sits in the middle to “bedroom 3” aka my room.... it will not stay in the correct on position. Auto bounces back.

edit two

it’s getting dark in here. My overhead main lights on 75% of home do not work. Some plugs work. Some don’t. What have I done. Was using the sun and opening blinds for light but the sun is going down. Fast. Plants haven’t had light all day.

On a 15 amp circuit you can pull a max of about 12 amps so add up that amps from the items and see what you were pulling.

Spread the load out using the other circuit in the room.

If the receptacle is melted or bad just flip that breaker off and replace it.

Renfro said:

Probably a bad breaker if it won't reset. Flip it all the way off and then on and see if it works. If not, replace it. Do not oversize it!

Spread your load out using the other circuit in the room that did not go off with the breaker.

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Do Not Oversize is great advice.

When I was renting and had 3 AC's running, the breaker kept popping. My dad came to visit and was like just replace it with a 30 amp fuse. Well a few days later we smelled smoke and it wound up being the house was on fire, lol.

The fire department said it was the wiring and didn't know why there was a 30 amp fuse in there. Well I played dumb. The neighbors all got some good excitement as they watched. At least we were home and my wife smelled it right away or we would've lost a bunch of shit.

I still make fun of my dad to this day about it.

PadawanWarrior said:

Sorry to laugh, but you definitely overloaded the circuit. How many watts do you have running? @Renfro is a sparky, maybe he can help, or at least get a good laugh, lol.

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How many watts on that one plug? Well 2 qb96 at about 150watts each, 4 qb132 at about 75 watts each, and my duct fan at I think 100 watts? Then 4 other fans at I have no idea how many watts. So maybe 800-900 watts on that plug? Is that too much?

If it was over loaded and this happened over time my bet is you have some fried wires somewhere between your grow room outlet and the breaker box...could be the back of the outlet melted as well.
If you have everything in your grow room unplugged and the breaker still wont reset (turn fully OFF then to ON) then it has to be shorted somewhere or still overloaded by something.
If you have a multimeter...check for power in the plug...if none then open it up and take a look.

Moabfighter said:

How many watts on that one plug? Well 2 qb96 at about 150watts each, 4 qb132 at about 75 watts each, and my duct fan at I think 100 watts? Then 4 other fans at I have no idea how many watts. So maybe 800-900 watts on that plug? Is that too much?

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That alone shouldn't be any problem but there are other receptacles on that circuit and whatever is on those is also adding up.

Moabfighter said:

How many watts on that one plug? Well 2 qb96 at about 150watts each, 4 qb132 at about 75 watts each, and my duct fan at I think 100 watts? Then 4 other fans at I have no idea how many watts. So maybe 800-900 watts on that plug? Is that too much?

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I bet you were using a cheap ass surge protector that couldn't handle the watts or amps you were putting through it. They will get hot if overloaded and that heat will transfer into the wiring. I bought a few decent ones, and I also spread out the draw to multiple outlets. I have one surge protector with all my fans going to one outlet, and my lights in another plugged into a different outlet. All on a singe 15 Amp circuit, but I'm pushing it.

Renfro said:

That alone shouldn't be any problem but there are other receptacles on that circuit and whatever is on those is also adding up.

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Any idea of a solution? All I can think is to clean my room up or break it down whatever? Have somebody with skills diagnose the main plug I use as my problem (it simply has to be) but my question is then what? Can I fix this on my own? I know the plug that has to be the issue because all the other ones are tested not the issue. Take the cover off and unscrew the wires and cover with electrical tape and eff the plug? Will that fix it? After killing the main Breaker. Listen I own a trailer and no landlord and i don’t know anything about electrical stuff but I’ve apparently fucked my home up and I need to fix it. Also everything has been same rig for over 14 months. We had a bad storm last night with lightning but I want to make no excuses. I simply do not understand the problem and I sincerely appreciate any help. It’s very dark in my home and my fiancé and 5yr old son are very pissed I fucked up our lighting situation.

I’m willing to FaceTime @Renfro if you can help me man. Talk me through the solution. Electrician said “there’s a plug he can’t find grounded” if you can help me ungrounds this or whatever I have no idea the terminology and get my lights back on I’ll PayPal you 50 bucks mans word. Holla in Pm and I’ll hit you my number or whatever this is a man needing help I don’t know what to do

Moabfighter said:

Any idea of a solution? All I can think is to clean my room up or break it down whatever? Have somebody with skills diagnose the main plug I use as my problem (it simply has to be) but my question is then what? Can I fix this on my own? I know the plug that has to be the issue because all the other ones are tested not the issue. Take the cover off and unscrew the wires and cover with electrical tape and eff the plug? Will that fix it? After killing the main Breaker. Listen I own a trailer and no landlord and i don’t know anything about electrical stuff but I’ve apparently fucked my home up and I need to fix it. Also everything has been same rig for over 14 months. We had a bad storm last night with lightning but I want to make no excuses. I simply do not understand the problem and I sincerely appreciate any help. It’s very dark in my home and my fiancé and 5yr old son are very pissed I fucked up our lighting situation.

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I wish there was a laugh and cry emoji.

Renfro said:

On a 15 amp circuit you can pull a max of about 12 amps so add up that amps from the items and see what you were pulling

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This is a good rule of thumb. Also, stagger your on times for your lights so they don’t all come on at once.
8:00 AM
8:01 AM
8:02 AM

This will help so your breaker doesn’t get slammed.

How many watts can you put through a 15AMP breaker?

If 120 volt plug ins:

120 volts x 15 AMPS = 1800 watts MAX draw.

You don’t want the above though you’ll have problems. You can’t draw max nonstop without risk.

120 volts x 12 AMPS = 1440 watts MAX

Something else is going on.

Moabfighter said:

I’m willing to FaceTime @Renfro if you can help me man. Talk me through the solution. Electrician said “there’s a plug he can’t find grounded” if you can help me ungrounds this or whatever I have no idea the terminology and get my lights back on I’ll PayPal you 50 bucks mans word. Holla in Pm and I’ll hit you my number or whatever this is a man needing help I don’t know what to do

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What happens when you flip the breaker back on?

Moabfighter said:

I’m willing to FaceTime @Renfro if you can help me man. Talk me through the solution. Electrician said “there’s a plug he can’t find grounded” if you can help me ungrounds this or whatever I have no idea the terminology and get my lights back on I’ll PayPal you 50 bucks mans word. Holla in Pm and I’ll hit you my number or whatever this is a man needing help I don’t know what to do

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That sucks man, but it might be that you fried just the outlet. Easy fix as long as you make sure the power is off first.

DrKiz said:

This is a good rule of thumb. Also, stagger your on times for your lights so they don’t all come on at once.
8:00 AM
8:01 AM
8:02 AM

This will help so your breaker doesn’t get slammed.

How many watts can you put through a 15AMP breaker?

If 120 volt plug ins:

120 volts x 15 AMPS = 1800 watts MAX draw.

You don’t want the above though you’ll have problems. You can’t draw max nonstop without risk.

120 volts x 12 AMPS = 1440 watts MAX

Something else is going on.

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He is running =LED so I don't think he needs to stagger fire.

Try swapping out one of your working breakers with the problem one. That would be my first attempt after I inspected the receptacle that has the load on it for damage.

Moabfighter said:

“there’s a plug he can’t find grounded”

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Could be that the plug was stuffed into the box and the ground conductor is touching a hot.

I would pull the receptacle out of the box and see whats going on.