The lights flashed, the room went dark, WTF happened!?!?

I plugged in a new clamp light to test it out and the room went dark. I went out to the fuse box and found that I blew a fuse.

WTF happend. The only off thing that I did was, take the reflector off of the clamp light. Did I unscrew somthing, did I screw somthing in wrong? All I know is bam, that light is going back to Home Depot...

I would love to know what happend if anyone knows. Thanks!

Did you ever watch poltergiest?

Haha, yeah unforutately I think the poltergeist was at the manufacturing location this time though, not in my TV. Hehe, still scary shit though.

What's the amp rating of the fuse and how many amps do you have running to it?

Well the fuse is part of the master bedroom fuse set. I went and looked at the fuse and there is a 20 on the fuse, so I think I can safely assume that is a 120(am I right about this?). There are two ceiling fans and a few electrical outlets tied to it.

The lamp I plugged in was :
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Bayco-10.5-Brooder-Clamp-Light/14003468

with a 20 Watt CFL.

That is what leads me to believe that something is REALLY wrong with the fixture.

Sorry, I meant how many amps are you actively using on that 20A fuse?

Ah, well the ceiling fan was running, and there was another 100W floor lamp on that is really it. I apologize that I can't give you an actual active amps. I honestly don't know how to derive this number.

I forgot to mention that I bought two of these clamp lights and the other did NOT do this.

Well it seems like you should be well under 20A, so I would buy a new fuse and hope that the other one was on its last legs. Keep us updated

The entire wire job and fuse box is less than 6 months old. That is why I am curious if there was anything I did to the clamp light, like cross a wire in it while taking the reflector off because the whole electrical system is reletivley brand new.

Would crossing a wire and screwing and wire back into the wrong place cause a overload to the fuse? This may have occured, when I was putting the fixture back together...??? There was a white wire and a black wire. Unscrewed them, rescrewed them.

Tho I am new to growing. I do know a little bit about electricity. At least the state of Colorado says I do. Yes, your 20 amp breaker is on 120v circuit. Your issue could be issues. The lamp is a cheap fixture. Messing with it in any way while it is on could cause an indirect short internally. Bumping the bulb while on could cause it to losen just Enough to draw an arc. Any of these in combination with being very close to your 20 amp limit would trip a breaker. Or, simply an old weak baker at any amp draw. Sounds like one of the first two.

Make sure your wires touch nothing but the lug that they screw to. Yes mixing up the location you screw the wires to will cause problems.

How many things do you have plunged in and running on this circuit?

The second light was manufactured improperly... if you plug in something and instantly, the circuit trips, that is a problem with the wiring in that light.. especially if it only did that with one light.. if you take the bad light to another outlet and plug it in, that breaker should trip too.. it means that the hot wire is touching the neutral or the ground wire.. creating a fault.. thus the breaker tripping.. test this by going to your GFCI plug in your bathroom, plug in the good light, if the circuit stays on then good..it should.. do the same with the other light... if the circuit trips/ or little red button on the plug pops out, then you know there is a fault in the product..

..

jixan said:

I plugged in a new clamp light to test it out and the room went dark. I went out to the fuse box and found that I blew a fuse.

WTF happend. The only off thing that I did was, take the reflector off of the clamp light. Did I unscrew somthing, did I screw somthing in wrong? All I know is bam, that light is going back to Home Depot...

I would love to know what happend if anyone knows. Thanks!

Click to expand...

On a side note... the 20 you saw... if it was on a breaker did you change it out? most homes are installed with 14awg wire in the walls to the plugs and switches... that wire is only good for 15A (12A continually) if the previous home owner had swapped a 15 for a 20, it is potentially bad.. I would look into this.. it is a common way to prevent a breaker from tripping but allowing more amperage out of the panel through a breaker that can support 20A is not a problem.. the existing wires and outlets are only good/ rated for 15A... so you see why the 20A breaker in your panel, going to your bedrooms not to a garage or a/c unit, worries me a little.. if someone swapped out the breaker to keep the christmas lights from going out, that is a bad thing... If for some reason you have 12awg running through your house, thank your builder, and enjoy the rarity having above code electrical wiring installed in your house.

Thank you very much wragler for you insight. I am pretty sure that if there was a human error at hand it could have quite possibly been my doing. (if it can be screwed up, I can screw it up). I never did do anything to the lamp while it was on. Never had a chance, I plugged it in and it blew the fuse. While screwing the two wires back in could I have possible screwed them in to the wrong spots creating a "open circuit" making the lamp draw far more amperage that intended? Please forgive me for what I am sure is improper terminology.

Thank you so much for everyone's help.

How will I get the reflector of my other clamp light without damaging the internals of the light?

Hey ResidualFreedom,

Thanks for all the great info. I REALLY appreciate you taking the time and talking me through the potential issues with my wiring, that really meant a lot to me.

I do have good news for you, I have actually been crawling around my attic a lot lately installing cat6 ethernet cable around the house to be able to steam media from my computer to the bedrooms and living room. The builder has installed 12awg electrical wiring.

We recently purchased a home that has had some extensive remodeling. There was an attic fire so everything from the top plates up were replaced, including all the electrical wiring. So all of the house is wired for 20's, 30's 45's and a 100 for the main breaker.


Thank you once again, I really do love RIU, an absolute wealth of knowledge and comradery.

*Forgot to add, I did go and test the light in my bathroom against the GFCI plug and sure enough it did exaclty like you described it would

Just to let everyone know, I took apart the clamp light and discovered that I had in fact mistakenly reattached both the white and black wires to the ground plate. I think I can chalk this one up to a learning experience.

*note to self, be more carefull when fucking with electrical equipment, burning the house down is not cool

Oops; I usually dont smoke before working around live wires

The sad thing about it is there was no smoke or beverage involved

Glad you figured it out.

And risidual freedom thanks for speaking up, there's a few ppl on here advising others to install 10g wire on a 20a breaker. And then they argued continually when correvted That's when I stopped giving electrical advise. I don't wanna even be involved when someone burns down there house.