I had a circut breaker trip that supplies power to a shed when I reset breaker the whole box hums & sells burn
Question:Burnt wire smell in section of basement after I tried to reset breaker
Answers:
The breaker may be defective. Or, there may be some more serious problem. Anytime you have a burning smell, you want to call in an expert.
My breakers are fine. No trips, noise or smells.
More than likely, the smell is coming from the wire that feeds your shed. It probably actually melted. This is a dangerous situation! You should keep that breaker turned off until you or a qualified electrician can determine the problem. It is VERY common for people to up their breaker size beyond the capacity of the wire. A 14 gauge wire is only capable of 15 Amps (barely enough to run a table saw without it tripping). A 12 gauge wire is capable of 20 amps. You failed to mention the size of the breaker. You should be able to carefully remove the panel cover and see the wire attached to the breaker. Odds are, it will be burned there, too. At least you can get the size of the wire. If you are not comfortable working with electricity, you should contact an electrician. It can be lethal.
Hope this helps!
you have a dead short
you did not mention the make of the breaker ( zinsco, federal pacific.. ) the amperage of the breaker.. the AIC rating of the breaker, the temperating of the breaker ( old one are typically 40C, and some at 60C newer ones are 75C ), weather or not it's a 2 pole breaker feeding the shed or just a single pole 1 circuit, the wire guage used , the wire type ( thhn .. thwn .. ect.. )
First remove the wires from the circuit breaker and use ohmmeter to check which wire is touching to the ground. Or you can use visual inspection, it means you can check the which wire is shorted by looking the burn mark or cut in the insulation. If you are afraid that will harm you just call electrician to help you.
Do not mess with it any more, call an electrician asap. There is something not right somewhere in your wiring and sounds like you need a pro's help. If you know any one who is at least a do it yourself guy you should ask his/her opinion I bet they say call a pro. Good luck.
you could have a burnt off supply leg and remember the nutral carries some current and could possably back feed into the box especially if its old .please do have it checked out by someone qualified.
DO NOT RESET THE BREAKER!! You have a short/heavy drain, and need an electrician!! Anytime you smell burning wire, the danger is real.
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