I have a standard 220VAC Cutler Hammer distro box in one of my apartments. The guys up there are p1ssing me off (loud music), but I need the rent money and they pay. The distro box is in a part of the house that I don't need a key to access and is impossible to observe from inside the apartment.
I need a neat, fast way other than arcing out to get the breaker to go into trip state. Can this be done? I could easily flip the breaker off, but unfortunately I've rented to loud music listening, mildly intelligent tenants (don't rent to smart people). They know the difference between off state and trip state. I want it to look like their stereo has drawn too much power and has tripped the breaker. I need this method to be fast, manual, and non-arcing, leaving the breaker in trip state, not off.
Any ideas?
?2013-01-31T22:43:41Z
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Let your local hobo know where their place is and that it's loaded with stereo equipment. Help the poor and all that. Short circuiting the distribution panel is a very bad idea.
There is only two ways to trip most circuit breakers.
1) A direct short circuit. You said you do not want to do this.
2) overload by drawing more amperage than the circuit breaker. Just add a big load hooked up to the circuit breaker they use and you want to trip.
On some newer circuit breakers there is arc fault or ground fault protection.
A small arc either hot to ground, neutral, or the other phase (hot). The arc is much smaller than a direct short.
In ground fault when there is a imbalance of electrical flow on the neutral or hot it trips the breaker. This happens in a fraction of a second. This is to protect people from getting shocked.
Arc fault and Ground fault breakers are newer and rarer.
if you have acess to the electrical panel I would just loosen the neutral wire if it is 120 volts. Or loosen one of the hot wires out of phase to add up to 220 volts.
If the circuit breaker is tripped it is easy to reset. A loose neutral will make it a lot harder to find and troubleshoot.
Look for the group of wires normally one to three hot wires with one neutral shared. The neutral is hooked to the neutral bus bar. Looseneing it is overlooked by many. This will stop the flow of electricity.
Part of preventive maintence is to check to make sure all electrical connections are good and tight for businesses.
My wager would be a bad blower motor. must be the the comfortable initiate capacitor if there is one. it could additionally be a undertaking with the digital ignition. the two will draw over 15amps while beginning if undesirable. do no longer put in a clean breaker with a much better sort ever. a 15 amp breaker is great for a gasoline furnace. If want be i'd call a hvac guy or woman in the previous a electrician. sturdy success.
Use as many things as you can to draw power from that breaker at the same time. This will be hard, seeing as you will need to trip the one he is on, not just any breaker. Also, if he is a tenant (and a rude one at that), he will likely not care, and find other means of playing his loud music.
Sir: What you are suggesting is illegal. Break and enter; unlawful entry; unlawful trespass, it goes on and on. if what you propose with the electrical backfired (literally) you could end up facing a manslaughter charge. You really should just talk to them, and let them know that their noise is irritating you, and maybe you could arrange to be out when they want to do their thing, or vice versa. You will get nothing but trouble if you follow through with your idea. Sorry, but you asked!