Main circuit keeps blowing

[Stacym]

Hi, we just bought a little house and are having issues will being able to run what we need. I am looking for advise to help manage over the next couple weeks and some insite to what is going on.
The circuit blows and the whole house goes out off of the switch that says 15. We need to run space heater in the basement and when we run the microwave and have our computers and stuff on the whole house goes out. It doesnt make sense to me why it is all attached to this 15 amp switch.
I ordered some lower wattage heater hoping to get us through a couple weeks until we can find someone to do updates. Due to covid we need to wait out a couple weeks before having anyone come in.
The washer is also on this outlet and we will need to run that. Thank you so much and insight would be greatly appriciated.

 

[Welchyboy1]

there could be a whole host of different scenarios that come into play

you need to call someone in to take a more detailed look at what the situation is, it’s not something that can really be solved over an internet forum

 

[telectrix]

as above.sounds like there's toomuch load on that breaker. a visit by a qualified electrician is my advice.

 

[Dartlec]

You are right that it would be unusual for everything in the house to run off the 15A breaker you've highlighted, so it likely means a previous owner has done something they haven't. That would need a professional to look at it (not sure what requirements are in your state for qualifications, etc - but hopefully one of our US viewers will have a better idea).

My understanding of US electrics is limited, but I believe it's usual for only a few outlets to be run together from one breaker - looks like you have some 230V breakers in there too which would usually run ovens or similar high power appliances (one is labelled oven in your pic)

Really the only advice I could give is to see if there are any outlets that are not fed from that breaker and stagger the load so that a heater and the washer aren't on together (if they are both on this circuit).

Heaters are usually the biggest load that goes on an outlet - so maybe worth look into a different type of heating (Gas bottle?) short term.

Computers are unlikely to be adding much, unless they are big desktop gaming rigs with large power supplies.