On Thu, 15 Nov 2007, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
alan wrote:
The one piece of kitchen equiptment that has caused me the most problems
is a toaster. I used to blow fuses at my old house all the time and 95%
of the time it was the toaster that pushed it over the edge.
With that high of a load, I wonder if the breakers work at all.
Toasters tend to be a high-draw appliance, but they do not produce
the startup spike that a microwave or a motor produces. Now, when it
comes to breakers, there are many different types. The most common
types in the U.S. are the thermal over-current and the magnetic
short-circuit types. The better types, like the Square-D QO line
have both in one package. The magnetic trip is great for protecting
against short-circuits, but do not do well against overloads. The
thermal trip types are great against over-current, but are very slow
to react to a short-circuit. One of the worst examples of this were
the old FPE breakers. You could vaporize anywhere between 1/4" to
1/2" of screwdriver before one would trip. On the other hand, the
did offer fair overload protection. (I can remember a 60 amp QO
breaker feeding a temporary panel trip before a 20 amp FPE breaker
that was the only load, when someone dropped a beam on a cord
plugged into the outlet. I was surprised that the breaker tripped
before the cord burned clear of the beam.)
The breakers in my old house were glass screw-in fuses.
Not the worse case at that house...
[Digression warning]
I had all sorts of problems with light bulbs flickering and burning out,
as well as other electrical problems. After lots of ranting I got the
landlord to bring in an electrician.
He found that one of the 220 breakers was blown, so he replaced the fuse
and threw the switch.
There was a flash across the room and the breaker popped immediatly.
He followed the 220 line from the breaker and found it clamped to a pipe.
A gas pipe.
When they replaced the electric stove with gas, instead of capping the
electric line, they just attached it to a nearby pipe. (Which happened to
be the gas pipe.)
My landlord did not say much the rest of the day and I know we didn't have
any gas leaks.
--
Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense.
