Breakers tripping- where to start

[ote]

I recently, within 6 months, just completed wiring a new home. I’ve had the home owner contact me just a few days ago and told me he came home and all combination arc fault/ gfci breakers were tripped, total of 5. He reset them all, and a few days later, they all were tripped again. The electric panel contains arc fault breakers also, but none of those were tripped, just the arc fault/ gfci breakers. The breakers are Eaton brand, with of course an Eaton panel. Service is 200amp with a meter/ panel combo outside, with a 4 wire feeder to the Eaton panel inside where the breakers are tripping. No electrical storms here in the past month, and the homeowner says this just started happening about a month ago. He has been moved into the new house for 5 months and no problems till now. He lives in a remote area. I haven’t been there yet to check things out, just looking for possibilities before I go. Would voltage spikes from utility company cause this? There is no whole house surge suppressor installed, and I can’t foresee 5 bad breakers. Any thoughts would be appreciated! First time I’ve seen this happen

 

[LarryFine]

Don't they have LEDs that tell you why they trip?

 

[ote]

Yes, they all flash 5 lights which means ground fault- 5 different breakers all tripped and all say ground fault- ?

 

[Little Bill]

I would start by replacing, temporarily, the DF breakers with just GFCI breakers and see if they hold.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

I recently, within 6 months, just completed wiring a new home. I’ve had the home owner contact me just a few days ago and told me he came home and all combination arc fault/ gfci breakers were tripped, total of 5. He reset them all, and a few days later, they all were tripped again. The electric panel contains arc fault breakers also, but none of those were tripped, just the arc fault/ gfci breakers. The breakers are Eaton brand, with of course an Eaton panel. Service is 200amp with a meter/ panel combo outside, with a 4 wire feeder to the Eaton panel inside where the breakers are tripping. No electrical storms here in the past month, and the homeowner says this just started happening about a month ago. He has been moved into the new house for 5 months and no problems till now. He lives in a remote area. I haven’t been there yet to check things out, just looking for possibilities before I go. Would voltage spikes from utility company cause this? There is no whole house surge suppressor installed, and I can’t foresee 5 bad breakers. Any thoughts would be appreciated! First time I’ve seen this happen

I believe that the Eaton AFCIs and maybe GFCIs have internal over voltage protection set at 160 volts RMS. Take a look at page 2 of this Eaton Document.

Overvoltage
The breaker will trip if it experiences voltage of 160 V rms or greater. The breaker can be reset and the TEST button can be pushed to verify that
the breaker is working properly. Most likely caused by a loose or floating neutral, either in the service entrance or at the transformer