Room fuse keepings tripping..wtf.... losing power

While Kdn is a least sane I would leave your panel alone. 20a circuits are run on 12g solid wire not 12 g stranded like your good cord. Dishwashers, microwaves and garbage disposals, generally get their own 20a circuits nowadays. I'm beginning to think your problem is a bad wiring job at the socket. If you think you can do it, and I think you can, flip the breaker off and replace the sockets. When you do try to cut an inch off the ends of the wires feeding into the box. Strip them back and make sure they aren't discolored. then make some "dank" bends on the ends and use the screws on the sides of the receptical. Make absolute sure you hook the black wire to the gold side and the white wire to the silver side. Don't fuck that up. Green wire goes to the green screw. It really sounds like you are getting a "point load"somewhere in your line causing a bunch of resistance. this effectively is running a small heater on top of all else. Dude, I saw some posts above saying some scary shit. Please replace the 15a breakers only with 15a breakers. And that's what I would do if replacing the plug doesn't work. What the above posters were saying about the saftey margin is basically true exept for when and if over time a point load occurs. Be careful

never put a larger breaker in your panel than in in there, its designed and wired for what is there,

you know those grow opp fires you hear about?

you need to increase the size of the wire feeding the circuit before you do that,

you need to get the a/c on a seperate circuit,
in my bedroom, I have a 9600 btu window air conditioner, if I have that on, while watching tv, and my ceiling fan is on, I'm right on the edge, cause if I turn on the bed side lamp it'll kick the breaker sometimes, or when the a/c compressor fires up it kicks it everytime

breakers also get weak over time, and some of those cheap power bars can cause problems too when large loads are plugged into them, I seen an air conditioner set one on fire

i wouldnt us a standered cord your better off buying some eletrical wire for 20 amp service and putting the ends on it and making your own cord.

I'm going with ace spoddity here. It seems strange that the ballasts ignition phase isn't blowing it, so I suspect there is a fault/dodgy contact somewhere.

all day without a problem. so far so good. you guys are awesome

Another thing I forgot to mention is that your AC compressor pulls more power to start as virtually every motor does. I am in my garage with one 15A plug. To upgrade I would have to run heavier wire. It may come to that in the future. I run a 400 and 600 watt in my grow room with 3 4"squirrel cage blowers in the ceiling a ion/uvc air filter 750W heater and a wind machine fan for circulation. In my veg chamber I have a 125 cf and 175 MH. Oh yeah 2 big air pumps. I expect someone to call bullshit but it is all carefully managed with timers and relay switch boxes. I went over a couple of times and made adjustments. There is nothing left. Maybe a phone charger for two places during the day.
Cues:
A ballast loads differently than a motor. The ballast is on or off like a light. It is pulling the same regardless of the condition down the line. Technically not true but practically true. Try a worm drive saw outside on a cold day and you will see what I mean.
I love electricity

haha you definitely seem like you know what you're talking about. Im glad i had to go through this and learn about it. I have been so gung-ho (sp?) about reading about mediums, nutes, different seeds and whatnot. I totally skipped over the safety aspect of the electrical accessories. I have been trouble free since my initial posting, so im assuming it was the insufficient extension cord or faulty wiring at the outlet I was using previously, though I doubt the latter.

"Answer
Hi Ned,

Just getting in for the day...

No...based on your description, you can not simply change only the breaker - you MUST also change the wire to a 12/2 with ground romex....and that includes all wiring that is on that particular circuit...not just the wiring for the receptacle outlet used for the heater.

Strange that this is a new house and 14 gauge wiring was used....most contractors no longer use any 14/2 wire - unless it's exclusively for smoke/fire alarm circuits. (I won't use 14 gauge wire in ANY circuits of homes I wire - it's simply too small for today's power hungry loads).

As you may be aware, the problem starts with 14 gauge copper only being good for 15 amps. If your 15 amp breaker is tripping...then this circuit is very near or even past it's 15 amp maximum allowable rating. If you change just the breaker over to a 20 amp....the wire will overheat and possibly go into a melt-down (or even a fire) long before the 20 amp breaker will trip....if it ever does."

Site was here for those interested in reading http://en.allexperts.com/q/Electrical-Wiring-Home-1734/Wire-size-vs-Breaker.htm

So no you cannot just take 14 ga wire for a 15 amp and make it a 20amp. Unless your house is new and then you should still check to see if they used 12ga.

It's most likely your AC compressor kicking on and tripping your supply every time.