Why are sparks and flames coming out of my breaker box?

[bobbin]

Now that I have your attention..

Seriously, yesterday I turned on the air-con in my front room and immediately saw a bright spark exit my breaker box, accompanied by a loud pop. The air-con turned on. There was a "burnt electrical" smell. I stared fixedly at the breaker box for 5 minutes but no more excitement. This is not a regular occurrence but..

I mentioned flames in the topic heading. Twice in the past year, once on opening and once when it had been operating for a few minutes, I have seen a small flame drifting down from the box. Floating almost, extinguished before hitting the floor. Suitably alarmed, I rushed over to the box but could find no residue on the floor. Twice.

Now before you start thinking that I like to live dangerously, I have to say that I called in an "electrician" after the second flame. Front panel was removed and there was "scorching" inside the panel, opposite the breaker for the air-con. But it was like scorched dust, not scorched paint, and it was easily brushed away, leaving a pristine painted surface. Diagnosis? A mystery...

Another piece of the puzzle is that I have a quality G.F.I. breaker of the proper size on the air-con dedicated circuit. It didn't trip on any of these occasions.

This air-con unit is not regularly used and is in almost new condition,

What's happening?

[eeeya]

im no electrician, but i had a wire come loose in my breaker box and the whole house would start flashing like a christmas tree every now and then.

happened a few times before i checked the box and one of the wires needed tightening up.

[tonray]

Likely spider webs or some kind of amorphous bug stuff getting between the contacts....when power hits...blammo...melts like steel wool floss under current

[BritManToo]

Grilled gecko!

[docshock13]

This is a no brainer fellas! It is obviously ghosts.

Solution: drop 20k for the local monks to perform a ceremony. Leave some money for food and drink for the local freeloaders and laokhao monkeys and VOILA! Problem solved.

[KNJ]

Intermittent spurious harmonics on the feedback coefficient of the isolating capacitor dielectrics resulting in a discharge of free electrons?

Loose wire?

[Crossy]

Intermittent spurious harmonics on the feedback coefficient of the isolating capacitor dielectrics resulting in a discharge of free electrons?

Loose wire?

More likely ants, the little tiny ones love the electric fields and they conduct electricity.

If they build up around a breaker that is off, then when the breaker is turned on they instantly turn into crispy ant dust.

[sean in udon]

Grilled gecko!

Spot on for my problem.

Kitchen breaker tripped. Reset and tripped again after about 30 seconds.

Isolated it to the microwave.

Before the breaker tripped, there was a crackling noise and a faint glow inside.

Gecko fried on the PCB inside.

Removed gecko, cleaned some 'fluids' off the board and no more tripping.

The microwave was ok as well.

[bobbin]

I actually suspected grilled gecko, and was almost expecting to see one when the front panel was removed. But no...

Ants? Well, there hasn't been an ant seen in my condo for at least a year, i.e. before the "events" happened. That's thanks to that wonderful American ant-killer whose name escapes me at the moment. But I can provide the name for people who have ant problems.

To the posters who suggested a loose wire, you might be onto something there. The compressor unit is mounted off the ground in one of those brackets, and is on the same (thin) wall as the breaker box. About 1.2 meters apart but different sides of the wall of course. So there is very definitely vibration in the wall, perhaps enough to loosen a wire. But it must be on the air-con breaker, as there are no issues with any of the other circuits in the room.

While the air-con was running yesterday, after the spark and pop, I put my hand on the lower left of the box and it was warm to the touch. I shut the air-con off after about 20 minutes and a little bit later the same area of the box was noticeably cooler...

[bobbin]

Likely spider webs or some kind of amorphous bug stuff getting between the contacts....when power hits...blammo...melts like steel wool floss under current

This is a reasonable description of when I saw the flame dropping (dripping) from the box. Like something had been ignited and consumed before hitting the floor. Hence no residue on the floor.

[KNJ]

Air con should be on a separate circuit, not same as other sockets.

Just out of interest do you have an efficient earthing system? PLEASE CHECK

How is the weather where you are at, a lot of rain recently?

[bobbin]

Air con should be on a separate circuit, not same as other sockets.

Just out of interest do you have an efficient earthing system? PLEASE CHECK

How is the weather where you are at, a lot of rain recently?

Yes, the air-con is on a dedicated circuit. My reference to other circuits in the room was to circuits on different breakers.

I instructed the construction electrician that I wanted my system earthed. Sai Dinn. How it was done I'm not sure, but it's not like a house where you can drive a rod deep into the ground.

Not much if any rain lately.. but the breaker box is inside my front room.