Tripped Circuit Breaker| Help

It's likely there is other stuff plugged in on that circuit. It wont matter what psu you have for that system as it wont change power draw. check to make sure you don't have too many other things plugged in.

You said your computer is plugged into a power strip. You mean a surge protector, right? It's not good to plug your computer into a plain power strip without surge protection.

Okay, just making sure.

If you turn the circuit off, is there anything in particular you notice that also loses power?

Do you know how many amps your room's circuit has? The switch should have a vertical number on it, usually 20 or 30.

usually circuits should be running at more than 20 or 30, more like 60-100 if you are in north america

Uhhh no, normal apartments only have a 100A main breaker, your individual circuit breakers are generally 10, 15, or 20A. You will only see breakers >20A for special purposes like dries, stoves, water heaters, etc.

Is the breaker for your room an Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI) type circuit breaker?

Is the breaker tripped when the system is turned on or during normal use?

You can get false positive tripping during system turn on due to the large inrush current that happens when the primary capacitor(s) in the PSU are being initially charged.

Swapping out a breaker that is tripping for a higher current breaker without knowing WHY it is tripping is actually a very dangerous idea. Breakers are safety devices, they are meant to limit the current so that the wiring in your house won't burst into flames. Unless you have wiring rated for the current limit of the breaker you shouldn't upgrade the breaker, and you should also seek out the source of the tripping breaker. If you have really old looking breakers they can fail over time and become more prone to tripping prematurely. I would see about replacing it with one from the same brand with the same current rating, or consult an electrician and have him make sure that the house's wiring is up to snuff.

If it is tripping with the computer on that is weird as the current draw will have pretty well stabilized so unless its a matter of drawing more than the breaker will tolerate for a long time there is likely a culprit outside of the computer. One day when you won't be home but others will be just turn off the breaker that turns your computer off, see if anyone in the house notices something isn't working, thats the easiest way to see if there is something common that is on the same circuit as you!

AFCI is arc fault current interrupter, it is designed to trip for sudden spikes in current which indicate an arc has occurred. These are fine for normal applications, but you can make them trip unintentionally depending on the application and load. You get an arc every time you flip a light switch, start a furnace, and you get seeming spark every time something with a big power supply or motor starts up as they have a sudden and massive inrush current. Though when the computer is running it shouldn't be tripping an AFCI as it will have a fairly continuous current draw.


Running on breakers that are too high for the wiring is a very risky game as breakers don't actually trip at the rating they say, they just won't trip below that. To trip a Square D QO breaker in a second or less you will need to exceed 6x the rated current draw, which means for a 30A breaker you will have 180A running through your wires for a full second, which is more than enough to cause 14 gauge wiring to burst into flames, 14 gauge wiring will blow open if you run 166A through it for 10 seconds so you are going to have a lot of melted copper before that breaker trips.
http://www.grainger.com/ec/pdf/QO-QOB-Miniature-Breakers-Catalog-2008.pdf

A 15A breaker can provide 1800W of power and is the maximum advised for 14 gauge wiring, 12 gauge wiring can be hooked up to a 20A breaker which will provide 2400W of power. For a computer and monitor that is pulling 500W max, 1600W should be more than enough. (These wattage numbers are for 120V, european systems have similar current ratings on wires but will get about twice the available power for the current rating)

15 amps times 110 volts equals 1650 watts. This should be able to run a computer. Maybe not much else if you are also using your TV.

Yeah, your computer and TV shouldn't trip the breaker, but there might be other devices running on this circuit that you don't know about. Like hunter315 said, switch off the breaker and look around the house to see if anything else isn't getting power.

Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupters are prone to “nuisance tripping”.

AFCIs are designed to sense an arc, which is an electrical “leak” caused when a hot wire touches a neutral or ground that wouldn’t necessarily trigger a conventional circuit breaker.

Current-sensing circuitry enables AFCIs to detect arcing conditions. Unintended trickles of current may also cause the breaker to shut off (i.e. AFCIs are very sensitive!).

Surge protectors shunt voltage spikes to ground and that can trip the AFCI breaker.

Any electrical/electronic device that allows current “leakage” can trip the AFCI.

That's what the OP said is being used for their room's circuit breaker.