Electric home heat system?

He needs to get a licensed electrician on it before he burns down his house. Don't even try to fix it, you'll negate his insurance if there is a fire....Stay Away!

There has to be some kind of physical short in the system that comes into play as it heats up. Normal resistance wire increases in resistance (lower current) when hot which is the opposite of what you describe.

Is this an electric forced air system? What size is the breaker that is tripping?

What you are describing is normal for a forced air system with the current increasing in steps as the sequencer operates.

Yes its forced air. The breakers were I think 20 amp or maybe 30. It was going in steps but the last step was around 65 I think. He has it off now and seems to be in no hurry since its warm down here. I never heard of a sequencer for these things. I just assumed it cycled on and off. Thanks --I don't get on here to often to check things

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My home is heated with a 15 KW electric forced air system. it has a

100 amp feed to the heating system and a sequencer that turns the elements on in 5KW steps. If your unit is something similar 65 amps would be about right for the operating current.

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It certainly sound as though it is an underwired electric furnace! Perhaps at some point in time somebody replaced a regular oil furnace that required electricity for the burner, oil blower and air circulating fan, for which a 20 to 30 amp circuit might be normal? But perhaps did not replace the circuit with the 'much heavier' wiring required for an electric furnace? Also don't understand why the heating unit is 'hidden' behind a wall!!!!! Just joking; ................ it's not a grow op. is it????? Just by way of comment a residence must often have a minimum 200 amp to the home and would estimate that the circuit for the heating unit would need a 100 amp breaker and wiring. Even if one is a qualified electrcian and even if the 'friend' is willing to fully pay for the proper job, which might require a new house service it would be wise to declare that the job is too large and will/may require electrical permits etc. If above is correct be very careful indeed. Liability for invalidating someones insurance could be a bad outcome!

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Also 65 amps (minus a little bit for air blowers) is 230 x 65 =3D 14,000 watts =3D roughly 46,000 BTUs, about typical for a medium sized residential furnace in a climate that doesn't get too cold?????

thanks for the input. It does seem like its needing a bigger breaker but he says it had worked fine till late this winter. From what I had found it did seem he needed a much bigger breaker. I am not in any way going to do anything but look at it. I told him to talk with the elctrician who does work at our job and since he had turned off the heat in the house 2 months ago he''s not in any hurry. My interest now is just in understanding it. I tell everyone who asks I am n ot qualified to do anything for them. I'm not wanting the responsibility although I'm not worried about doing anything at m own house. thanks Rosco

Having your elcetrician look at the unit is the right way to go. I have installed several of these units and if we are talking about the same type of unit it would need a 100 amp breaker and N0. 2 copper wire. I am surprised that a wall needs to be removed to access the heater unless you are talking about a mobil home where some heating systems are virtually unreachable.