Hello,I purchased a new ceramic tower space heater.

[rbparham]

Hello,
I purchased a new ceramic tower space heater. I ran it for 24 Hrs. with no problem. The second day, the heater tripped the circuit breaker. I moved it to another recepticle and the heater tripped that breaker also (a different breaker). So I thought that maybe the heater required too high of a voltage. I then returned the heater to the store and purchased a smaller unit. Mind you that I have been running a space heater from the same recepticle before purchasing the new larger unit. So I tried the second space heater that I purchased (a smaller unit - 120 watts). When I set the new unit to the high mode, my light began flickering in the room where the heater was plugged. The heater runs fine on the low mode. Do you have any suggestions or advice as to what`s happening?

[markmark]

110 volt space heaters require a HUGH amount of amperage. A 1,200 watt unit consumes 10.9 amps. If you run that unit several hours a day, for many days, your power bill will increase significantly per month.

[rbparham]

Thanks for your response. How can I tell if a circuit breaker is failing? Do they just go out all of a sudden, or do they go out gradually (start tripping easily)?

[markmark]

You can put a amp meter on the circuit to see at what point it trips. Some old breakers have been known to hold more amps than their rating.