Yeah I am waiting for the next time its cold enough to use the space heater or warm enough for the AC portable unit.

Why wait... no time like the present to give it a test. While I hope for the best..on this..I fear it'll only be a couple moments until the breaker snaps and leaves you in darkness.

yeah well if it goes again I will call the electrican. I dont want to take any chances like some of you have told me.

Aha!

Lol.....you caught me...but seriously they are not even allowed in my office. The get free roam sometimes but not on this side of the house.

OK, I just saw this thread and wish I had seen it sooner. Something you NEED to know. That 15 amp breaker you took out was what they call an "Arc Fault Breaker". Both 11 and 13 are/were. That breaker is specifically designed to provide extra grounding fault protection (to keep you from electrocuting yourself).

If you replaced it with a regular 15 amp breaker (most likely), you just reduced your level of protection and are now not meeting code requirements. Most likely these two circuits were placed for extra protection for your computers, TVs, etc. (modern house). Now go get an Arc Fault breaker and replace the one just just put in there with that..

Note that you should not replace breakers without first shutting the whole panel off (all power to the house). Good way to fry yourself.

Also note that Square D did have some issues with Arc Faults in the the 2004 time period, so it is possible that the breaker went bad. Also heed the advice of others that have suggested you get an additional circuit up there. That space heater will always draw more than you want with all the other load on there. A decent electrician will not charge more than a couple hundred to do a good job.

Keep in mind that Arc Fault breakers are expensive. We currently pay $37 each.

Lash,

Thanks for the heads up. I didnt go the cheap route I replaced it with the same type Arc Fault type that was in there. It was 32.99 at lowes. I didnt get a shock but i assumes switching the main switch on top to off would have been enough. Where else would I be able to stop power coming to the house other than the pole.

Anyway I didnt want to pay an electrican just to put in a breaker that I could do myself. As far as adding a circuit etc. I will leave that to the pros.

Should I keep the old one as an extra for emergency or toss it.

Thank you

You didn't do so bad after all.

The switch at the top of the panel does it for minor changes like replacing breakers and you did use a proper replacement breaker.

Still, you should get an extra circuit in there. Maxing a circuit on a regular basis still leaves the potential for heating the wires a bit much.

Throw out that old breaker, it'* of no good use to you now.

Hey its been 2 days with the portable AC on and the new 15amp breaker is holding well. I guess the other one was just bad.

Thanks again all.