My 1500watt portable heater keeps tripping the circuit breaker in the basement. How do I stop this from happening? The breaker runs several different outlets in the backside of the house, and the outlet on the porch where I have the heater plugged in. I thought about trying to put a bigger breaker in the box than the one thats there now which is a 15 amp. I'm also running a tv, portable stereo, microwave, coffee maker, and alarm clock all from one outlet on the porch where I spend most of my time, and sleep. There is another tennant in the basement where the breaker box is located, so if it trips at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, I spend the rest of the morning freezing because I don't want to disturb him from his sleep to turn the breaker back on for me. Please help!
Sincerely,
Anthony

Anthony, December 2008

Go ahead throw a bigger breaker in it,it will be fine.20 amp should do it,make shure you replace the outlet that your plugging the heater into with a 20 amp plug as well,thats if you have 12/2 which is code,it will carry 20 amps just fine.

John Doe, December 2010

the reason the breaker is tripping , it there is too much load on it , NO do NOT repace the breaker with a bigger one!!!! you might start a fire in the walls if you do you will have to find a different cuircuit to plug it into or plug all your other stuff into a different one , if this is not possible , you would have to get an electrician to run a sepreate wire up there to run the heater on again .. do not replace to breaker!!! the wire in the wall can only carry so much load , putting a bigger breaker in doubles the load of the breaker , not the wire , it will heat up till it flashes to flame

nort73, December 2008