Power Issues

[Vitoc]

The power keeps going out here at the apartment.  The only thing we can think of is adding the 4th computer along with our TV / Surround, and central air pushes us over the limit of what our apartment's wiring can handle.  I don't know.  Does that sound crazy?  Anyway, will see if it persists.

[The Crazy Animal]

No, its not crazy what probably is happening is your tripping a breaker by pull to many amps through that leg of the breaker box. If your not tripping the main breaker you can go through your breakers and see if you can put some of the computers onto outlets controlled by different breakers. That's the cheapest way you can fix this problem. If you can't do that let me know and I can give you some other options to explore.

If it is tripping the main breaker then your kinda out of luck unless you own the apt unit or have a landlord that will help you out. If this is the case you could check about upgrading the service (amperage) rating coming into the box. You probably only have about 60 amps total right now. going to the next rating up (I think 100 amps) would probably would set you back about $450-700 depending on the amount of work needed but would cure the problem 100%.

[Vitoc]

Thanks for the info.

Shouldn't it be tripping one of our circuit breakers instead of flashing off for just a second before turning back on?? None of the switches in our breaker box are being tripped, and the power comes back on instantly after it goes off.? It's happened like 5 times today.? We're definitely going to call the front office tomorrow and let them know, but I'm sure they might consider this many computers umm... a bit excessive.? ? (but I can justify every one of them in my head )

[PAA666]

um, just pull the computers off and hide them then tell them it is doing it......



i had a similar problem, but wasnt a total house power loss.....everytime the AC kicked on my computer would shut off, kinda like a burp in the power....i bought a battery backup and have been fine since, but you sound like you have a slightly more major problem......i would assume that it would be an overload of the wiring.....not sure

[Secret]

It sounds like you are having problems with spikes in power. The average power usage is probably supported but say 1-2 things spike at the same time then the whole house comes down. I can't figure out why it won't trip the breaker though.

[The Crazy Animal]

Thanks for the info.

Shouldn't it be tripping one of our circuit breakers instead of flashing off for just a second before turning back on?? None of the switches in our breaker box are being tripped, and the power comes back on instantly after it goes off.? It's happened like 5 times today.? We're definitely going to call the front office tomorrow and let them know, but I'm sure they might consider this many computers umm... a bit excessive.? ? (but I can justify every one of them in my head )

Well a few things could be going on:
It might just not be causing enough load to trip the actual breaker but during the flash when the computers shut down it takes the extra load off the line causing the breaker not to trip. Or you could just have a bad breaker in there, bad breakers don't always trip like they should. I would definitely call the office and see if they can get an electrician to at least take a look, they might be able just to swap some of the breakers around to give you more amps going to your computer room.

If they can't find the problem the only other thing that might really help is some power conditioner units from APC:

http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=67

or if you want battery backup too:

http://www.apc.com/products/category.cfm?id=13&subid=5

Either of these types of units though will help regulate the amount of power getting to your computers.