What do you do when you think the power company is trying to kill you reef tanks????

[Strat1960s]

I have two salt tanks and an Apex for each. Yesterday, out of nowhere, the GFCI for both tanks tripped and lights in the house began diming and flashing and the TV in the living room turned off. Now that I look back, I can't not 100% say it tripped the 20 amp circuit breaker. I unplugged both tanks and plugged them into a generator, I placed a service call with our home warranty company and spoke with the owner of the company. He said it sounded like I overloaded the breaker. But also mentioned that the local power company has been reducing its output voltage from above 110 to less than 105 (this seems important). When the electrician arrived everything looked good and we could not narrow it down to one single cause. With both tanks fully up and running we measured 12.4 amps at the circuit breaker. We wrote it off, I gave him 6 dozzen eggs (we have a bunch of chickens) and waved to him as he left our property. Tonight, around 8pm it happened again. GFCIs were clicking away, lights were flasing, and TVs turned themselves off. I unplugger both tanks, manually shut off the circuit breaker and let the house settle down while I climbed up into the attic, check the well pump house, and walked around the property looking for anything that may have set things in motion. By the way, both tanks were running on generaters. About 45 minutes later, I turned the circuit breaker back on and plugged in the two tanks. Once the WiFi did its thing I connectd to both tanks and went to the Apex power montitoring. Both tanks are only receiving 102v. Prilor to this the tanks were receiving around 117v. Amps are still low(ish) with both tanks drawing a combined 6 amps on the 20 amp circuit as the two tanks slow down for the evening (tank lights dim, refugium light turns on and gyres go into their night mode). I called the electrician and he agreed that is too low. Tomorrow is Saturday. I doubt anyone will even be their to answer the phone. You can bet that on Monday, I will be calling the power company to send a technician to my house and help me to understand why I have 102v at my outlets. (I used my Fluke meter to test several outlets throughout the house.)
Thoughts???

 

[Strat1960s]

This can't be good??!!

 

[hikebikebrew]

Not sure where you live, but typically service power isn't at the household 115/120 V. It's much more efficient for power companies to provide service at 240 to a household. You service panel will then provide that to your house at 240 (usually for ovens, dryers etc) and 120v.

Did the electrician verify your service power? I think it would be good to verify what's being supplied so you'd know if the problem is coming in, or inside your electric system.

Generally, Id agree with your observations though. What your saying does seem to match up with reduced power supply.

Again not sure where you are, but where Im originally from in upstate NY, we'd get red squirrels in attics in the winter and they'd chew on anything and could cause electrical problems.

 

[Strat1960s]

Not sure where you live, but typically service power isn't at the household 115/120 V. It's much more efficient for power companies to provide service at 240 to a household. You service panel will then provide that to your house at 240 (usually for ovens, dryers etc) and 120v.

Did the electrician verify your service power? I think it would be good to verify what's being supplied so you'd know if the problem is coming in, or inside your electric system.

Generally, Id agree with your observations though. What your saying does seem to match up with reduced power supply.

Again not sure where you are, but where Im originally from in upstate NY, we'd get red squirrels in attics in the winter and they'd chew on anything and could cause electrical problems.

I believe you are right about the 240. When the electrician showed up, we were focused on what could be overloading the circuit breaker. The cuircuit breaker controls the outlets in my fishroom and the outlets on the outside of the house. Yes, I do believe I mispoke about the 110 and may have misunderstood the company's owner when he was talking about the power coming into the house. The owner did say he would come out to the house on monday. I will edit the post to show I was mistaken when I said 110 into the house. I am in North East Texas, out in the sticks. I climbed around inside the attic and could not see or smell (burnt wires) however, there is a lot of the attic I cannot get to without trashing the HVAC ducts or falling through the sheet rock. Now that I think about it, my wife mentioned something smelling like burnt fireworks by the power meter. Might be a good place to begin deeper troubleshooting.

 

[hikebikebrew]

Good luck troubleshooting! Hope it's an easy fix once you find it.

 

[JCOLE]

Call the power company and have them come out and test the service going to your meter and house panel. Sounds like there is an issue with the feed coming into your house. They might have to increase the service feed into the house. This doesn't sound like it is your problem.

Do you have a UPS? If not then I would recommend getting a couple of them for your EB832s. They will help with loss of power, surges and the occasional brown out.

Something like this will work but you'll need to size it according to your load and needs.

https://a.co/d/h2x47Ml

 

[VegasReefer]

I believe you were part of a larger growing issue. There is a huge demand for power with the cold winter and the politics of the day is causing power companies to ask consumers to use less power. When the gird gets overrun, the rolling blackouts occur. Being in the sticks, probably aspirated the situation. Battery backup might be your best option.

 

[Strat1960s]

Call the power company and have them come out and test the service going to your meter and house panel. Sounds like there is an issue with the feed coming into your house. They might have to increase the service feed into the house. This doesn't sound like it is your problem.

Do you have a UPS? If not then I would recommend getting a couple of them for your EB832s. They will help with loss of power, surges and the occasional brown out.

Something like this will work but you'll need to size it according to your load and needs.

https://a.co/d/h2x47Ml

JCole, I have two generators that I have used for the aquariums during past ice storms. I have backup power. I ran the tanks on generators for over a week while the power company was performing sellective blackouts during one ice storm.

 

[Strat1960s]

I believe you were part of a larger growing issue. There is a huge demand for power with the cold winter and the politics of the day is causing power companies to ask consumers to use less power. When the gird gets overrun, the rolling blackouts occur. Being in the sticks, probably aspirated the situation. Battery backup might be your best option.

Vegas Reefer, I have two generators that I have mainly for the fish tanks. I believe the generators are better suited for prolonged use (greater than a couple hours). I would love to get a whole house generator, but I will be saving my lunch money for that for several years.

 

[JCOLE]

JCole, I have two generators that I have used for the aquariums during past ice storms. I have backup power. I ran the tanks on generators for over a week while the power company was performing sellective blackouts during one ice storm.

Are the generators connected to a transfer switch in the event you lose power to your house or are they portable in case you lose power you can use them temporarily? If they are portable for temporary use then that is not the same as a UPS.

 

[Strat1960s]

Are the generators connected to a transfer switch in the event you lose power to your house or are they portable in case you lose power you can use them temporarily? If they are portable for temporary use then that is not the same as a UPS.

JCole. Yes you are right. They are portable. And I can see where having pumps on the UPS could buy me some time to fire up a generator and hook everything up to it. My past experience with UPS is that they're only good for a couple hours. Again, this could buy me some time while I get the generator up and going. I got 12 hours on one tank of gas on the generator.

 

[mnl119]

I have two salt tanks and an Apex for each. Yesterday, out of nowhere, the GFCI for both tanks tripped and lights in the house began diming and flashing and the TV in the living room turned off. Now that I look back, I can't not 100% say it tripped the 20 amp circuit breaker. I unplugged both tanks and plugged them into a generator, I placed a service call with our home warranty company and spoke with the owner of the company. He said it sounded like I overloaded the breaker. But also mentioned that the local power company has been reducing its output voltage from above 110 to less than 105 (this seems important). When the electrician arrived everything looked good and we could not narrow it down to one single cause. With both tanks fully up and running we measured 12.4 amps at the circuit breaker. We wrote it off, I gave him 6 dozzen eggs (we have a bunch of chickens) and waved to him as he left our property. Tonight, around 8pm it happened again. GFCIs were clicking away, lights were flasing, and TVs turned themselves off. I unplugger both tanks, manually shut off the circuit breaker and let the house settle down while I climbed up into the attic, check the well pump house, and walked around the property looking for anything that may have set things in motion. By the way, both tanks were running on generaters. About 45 minutes later, I turned the circuit breaker back on and plugged in the two tanks. Once the WiFi did its thing I connectd to both tanks and went to the Apex power montitoring. Both tanks are only receiving 102v. Prilor to this the tanks were receiving around 117v. Amps are still low(ish) with both tanks drawing a combined 6 amps on the 20 amp circuit as the two tanks slow down for the evening (tank lights dim, refugium light turns on and gyres go into their night mode). I called the electrician and he agreed that is too low. Tomorrow is Saturday. I doubt anyone will even be their to answer the phone. You can bet that on Monday, I will be calling the power company to send a technician to my house and help me to understand why I have 102v at my outlets. (I used my Fluke meter to test several outlets throughout the house.)
Thoughts???

Overloading a breaker or low voltage should not trip a GFCI. Only a short to ground would cause this.

 

[Strat1960s]

I have two salt tanks and an Apex for each. Yesterday, out of nowhere, the GFCI for both tanks tripped and lights in the house began diming and flashing and the TV in the living room turned off. Now that I look back, I can't not 100% say it tripped the 20 amp circuit breaker. I unplugged both tanks and plugged them into a generator, I placed a service call with our home warranty company and spoke with the owner of the company. He said it sounded like I overloaded the breaker. But also mentioned that the local power company has been reducing its output voltage from above 110 to less than 105 (this seems important). When the electrician arrived everything looked good and we could not narrow it down to one single cause. With both tanks fully up and running we measured 12.4 amps at the circuit breaker. We wrote it off, I gave him 6 dozzen eggs (we have a bunch of chickens) and waved to him as he left our property. Tonight, around 8pm it happened again. GFCIs were clicking away, lights were flasing, and TVs turned themselves off. I unplugger both tanks, manually shut off the circuit breaker and let the house settle down while I climbed up into the attic, check the well pump house, and walked around the property looking for anything that may have set things in motion. By the way, both tanks were running on generaters. About 45 minutes later, I turned the circuit breaker back on and plugged in the two tanks. Once the WiFi did its thing I connectd to both tanks and went to the Apex power montitoring. Both tanks are only receiving 102v. Prilor to this the tanks were receiving around 117v. Amps are still low(ish) with both tanks drawing a combined 6 amps on the 20 amp circuit as the two tanks slow down for the evening (tank lights dim, refugium light turns on and gyres go into their night mode). I called the electrician and he agreed that is too low. Tomorrow is Saturday. I doubt anyone will even be their to answer the phone. You can bet that on Monday, I will be calling the power company to send a technician to my house and help me to understand why I have 102v at my outlets. (I used my Fluke meter to test several outlets throughout the house.)
Thoughts???

UPDATE: I owe the power company an appology for thinking they may have been the cause of my electrical issues. I also owe Marc Levenson a big thank you for trouble shooting tips. I believe the problem is in the pannel.

 

[JCOLE]

JCole. Yes you are right. They are portable. And I can see where having pumps on the UPS could buy me some time to fire up a generator and hook everything up to it. My past experience with UPS is that they're only good for a couple hours. Again, this could buy me some time while I get the generator up and going. I got 12 hours on one tank of gas on the generator.

I recommended the UPS not for backup power but to help keep things running momentarily while the voltage drops intermittently. UPS are really good for that.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

My Power Company was having these partial power losses, and the Voltage would drop to 60 Volts. 100 volts on the 230 side. Surge Protectors at the Panels, and the Surge Protector Power Strips at the Aquarium, do nothing for protection. They Fried my Drivers and COB LEDs. I finally made an appointment at the Utility, with pictures of my Meter showing the dropped voltages. So far it’s been corrected. Now when we loose power, it’s a total drop. Glad they didn’t fry my Heat Pump.

 

[kbnh]

UPDATE: I owe the power company an appology for thinking they may have been the cause of my electrical issues. I also owe Marc Levenson a big thank you for trouble shooting tips. I believe the problem is in the pannel.

You said it would turn off the tv and other items, are they all on the same circuit?

 

[Sfork]

Ups shouldn’t be backing up your whole tank. Just a pump imo.

sounds like a bad panel/breaker See what brand panel you have and if it’s not for sale at Home Depot it’s probably because they went out of business for being bad. The breaker tripping at night probably from the heaters going into overdrive. The weird voltage unsteadiness is how our old panel acted when it wanted to trip but couldn’t