Any electricians here? I need advice on circuit problem

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Anybody here an electrician? Or knowledgeable about circuit breaker overheating/problems? I could really use some advice as I can not afford a home electrical overhaul.



It sounds like you are overloading a circuit which means you likely need to move whatever is taking up that much energy to a different part of the house.



Thanks for both of the replies.
My husband is an electrical engineer. You can send me a message here and I can go ask him verbally!
The problem is kinda complex but it boils down to the 70 amp circuit breaker for the electric furnace gets really hot when the furnace is run for any length of time. The 200 amp main breaker that's located right above it gets hot too, but only when the furnace is run.

I had an electric furnace tech come out and said the furnace's relay points were sticking so installed a new relay box. The furnace works great now but the overheating of it's circuit breaker remained.

Then we called out an electrician who opened up the circuit breaker box and said it and it's wires looked good and thought the problem was outside of the house either on the pole or in the power companies transformer which is on our property. But after talking to his boss he tries to sell me a new circuit breaker box for $7000 installed. When I asked if that was going to solve the problem of overheating the circuit breaker he couldn't give me a straight answer.

So today I called the power company and their guy came out and checked the outside stuff and said it all looked good. He was really a nice guy and he came inside and looked at the circuit box and measured the amperage being drawn by the furnace and it was within specs. He suggested the 70amp circuit breaker was failing and I should replace it, which I can do. But he also said if the bus in the circuit box was damaged then the entire box needs replace...No way can I afford $7 grand for that, so I'd be looking at doing it myself.

It sounds like you are overloading a circuit which means you likely need to move whatever is taking up that much energy to a different part of the house.
That's a good guess and what I thought too but the only thing on the circuit is the electric furnace which checks out OK.



I do have a hypothesis and that is during the time that the furnace relay switch was sticking, the points would sometimes stick open causing me to have to throw the breaker off and back on to get the furnace to run...and when the furnace shut off the heating elements didn't always shut off because the points stuck on and so the heating elements ran continuously causing the circuit breaker to get damaged. My next move is to replace the furnace's circuit breaker...and cross my fingers!



You ready? You look ready.
Cheapest idea first, so start with breaker and if that doesn’t work it is probably the box. How old is the box in question? You on an overhead line or buried line? What amp service you got?

And how warm we talking? Like slightly warm to the touch or so hot you can’t touch it?