,I had a "shocking" experience..

[Jace]

The other night...it wa little chilly..
so sittigh in the family.room..
I turned on a little electric space heater..
In a.bit...then it stopped, the halogen pole light "went dark

I had blown a.fuse

two major.plugs were effected

when I went.to flip the switch on the fuse.box...it wouldn't go back (reset)

Oh! No..what to do?

I waited..

Then.it reset

Now, I'm reluctant to use space heater..that it will keep happening

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Fritz]

If it's an older space heater it might be time for a new one.

Also how much stuff is plugged into the same circuit?

Might wanna get the breaker box and outlet checked by an electrician.

 

[Jace]

@Fritz ..good idea
Don't think the heater is that old
But..I didn't think how.much.other stuff.plugged in

 

[Fritz]

I don't know what kind of home you're in but some of the older ones get overloaded easily.

 

[IrishEyes]

Very glad for you it didn't turn into something so much worse. Good to know you are OK.

 

[Oldeagle66]

Happened to me with a space heater before. I just unplugged a few other things and it stopped.

 

[Michael Z]

What amp rating is the breaker? 15 AMP? If so, your heater may very well be up near that limit and popping the breaker would be a very normal thing. If you have an outlet on a 20 AMP breaker, try that one. Also, often these heaters have several settings which allow either more current or less - if so try the lower setting. For example, you can use only 600 watts, only 900 watts, or both together for 1500 watts, which would be 12.5AMPS. You would avoid using both together.

 

[seadoug]

Sometimes you can overload a particular circuit. When we got our new air fryer we plugged it into the same outlet as our microwave and the microwave power immediately went out. We now have it plugged into another outlet and have had no problems.

 

[HoneyNut]

when I went.to flip the switch on the fuse.box...it wouldn't go back (reset)

Oh! No..what to do?

I waited..

Then.it reset

That would scare me (it not wanting to reset), the only time I had a breaker that wouldn't reset was when a part of the septic pump system fell down into the bottom of the tank. From my understanding it didn't want to reset because whatever it would do was still bad.

I'm glad it reset for you after a bit, I wonder if the heater was somehow still 'on' when the fuse wouldn't reset and then somehow was 'off' after a bit?

Does the fuse flip off for other appliances of similar power consumption (I don't even know the right words, wattage?), if you plug a vacuum cleaner in that plug-in does it make the lights blink to turn it on?

Personally I'd be scared to try to use the heater again, but maybe something else was on at the same time.

 

[Jace]

@Michael Z ..
do n't.know breaker-box amps..
It may not be 'up to code'
Older house

 

[Jace]

@HoneyNut ..hadn't.hapopened before
yes, I'm scared to use

 

[Jace]

TY allf...for your kind responses

 

[Fritz]

if the breaker isn't resetting you really need to have a professional check it out. might save yourself from a house fire. good luck @Jace!

 

[Michael Z]

Do you have fuses instead of breakers?

If you have breakers, the amps will be clearly labeled as 15A, 20A, etc.

At any rate, I have popped a 15amp breaker when running a space heater set at its highest setting of 1500 watts. It is not unusual. Does the breaker reset if the heater is not plugged in? If not, then you may need a new breaker.

 

[Michael Z]

Could you post a photo of your breaker box (with the door open)?

 

[Fritz]

Could you post a photo of your breaker box (with the door open)?

he said he had a breaker box not a fuse box. breaker boxes have switches. not sure the fuse box does.