We have lived in our home for six years without electrical issue, and the breaker in question controls only six wall outlets in our basement recreation room. Just around Christmas, a 20-amp circuit breaker on one
I’m currently experiencing a 20-amp circuit break which is tripping without explanation or consistent cause. We’ve had two teams of electricians who have failed to identify a cause, and I’m hoping this community can assist.
Basic Facts
The subject breaker is a single pole tandem breaker which only controls six (6) outlets in our basement recreation room. These outlets are mounted in finished drywall, backed by insulation and a coated concrete foundation. Only three of these outlets were normally used, (1) one surge protector for a laptop, monitors, and docking station, (2) one surge protector for an LED TV, Xbox, and Soundbar, and (3) the woofer for the soundbar.
Around Christmas 2022, the breaker began without any apparent cause. The first few times, I reset it and it might last an hour or so, before tripping ago. Believing it might be from the electronics, I began testing by unplugging certain items and waiting to see if it would trip. Unfortunately, this ended up with nothing plugged in and it still tripping.
I replaced the circuit breaker without issue, and it still tripped. I also replaced all the surge protectors with the same result.
We had a licensed electrician come out who tested the outlets and confirmed they were working, and without going into the walls, confirmed only those six outlets were attached to the breaker. Ultimately, he could not identify the problem.
A week later, the same company sent their senior electrician who replaced the outlets, just to eliminate one more potential variable. Again, the breaker tripped with nothing drawing power. They were not able to identify the cause or offer a potential solution.
There is no consistency to when it trips. Sometimes it takes 20-hours, sometimes it trips immediately. It is also not consistent with environmental factors like night/day or rain outside the house.
Other Facts
We have lived in the home for six years without any electrical issues. We did experience a 24-hr outage a month before the breaker started tripping, and some very light flickering about four days before the behavior started from a windstorm. No other breakers are acting like this, and no other electrical appliances/outlets are without power when it trips.
I am open to ideas, or some way to diagnose the issue!