Yeah I bet that circuit has been abused from all the events in there over the years. DJ's are notorious for pulling power from wrong places. Funny being an electrician and doing the dj side work as I start doing the same stupid 19 amps on a 20 amp receptacle just the same. I have come across a few schools with uneducated custodians that have changed receptacles like the one mentioned to be on a 30 amp breaker! I think they would benefit from a few new circuits in that gym. It's a huge full size high school stadium and it has 5 receptacles spread out on 2 circuits. One 20 amp circuit was added during a computer upgrade project. Hah thats says (computer use only). Just like the computer use only circuit back in my biology class 5 years ago that the teacher plugged 4 11 amp hotplates into. It somehow melted a breaker in a brand new 400 amp commercial square D panel before it tripped. I just thought it was odd how 10 minutes later it would trip with a reduced load of 8 amps on it. It came on for 3 seconds and then went back out. Guess as you say there was probably a lot of heat around it.

Thanks for answering the 220 question although the wires going out to the garage probably won't support it. The feeder wires only appear to be either 10 or 12 gauge. I'll need to pull the panel cover off again to see for certain. The line run from main panel to sub panel is only about 40 feet, going underground from the basement and coming up into the detached garage. An added twist is that prior to my ownership, the dirt basement craw-space was the neighborhood cat toilet. A junction box for the garage circuit is laying on the dirt floor and wires go from there underground into the dirt and down and out. The box is eroded from acid in the cat pee and in some places, the armored cable is completely eroded through and only the wires are left exposed in their plastic wrapper. I haven't had the opportunity to tackle that one yet nor have I seen how bad things are inside the box. It may be playing a role with the current loss theory. Fixing that whole mess is another problem in of itself as I don't have any room to play with extra wire. The junction box is already on the ground in the dirt. And, they seem to have just run armored cable into the ground but there is conduit coming up in the garage so it must meet up with it somewhere. A mess, but fairly typical for this 1896 home.

great ideas, here. As it turns out, the appliances (coffee maker and toaster) add up to more then 20 amps when both used on the same circuit, explaining why the breaker was tripped. However, did it all the time with old service entry and never had a problem. Perhaps it used to be a 30 amps circuit, i.e., connected to a 30 amp breaker in the service entry? As far is the stove goes, my handyman friend took a look at the service entry. It seems clear that the breaker for the stove IS USED! unbelievable. (I have an office job, took the handiman to notice such things). about a quarter of the breakers are used....I am lucky the oven is the only problem (as stated, I think the appliances combined were greater then the breaker load used, so I don't think this is a problem.) I am therefore hoping it is the breaker, which would be the best case scenario. I'll check for pattern in the oven combination of burners. Really think the oven/stove is fine though. The reason I upgraded the service panel (could have gotten a subpanel) was some mumbo jumbo about it not handling enough electricity for what was being produced, but OTOH it was old and decaying, and I got a rebate for 1/3 of the price of the new one. I got the electrician for the service panel completely independent of the solar company. The specs on my oven 100 kw at 120/240 volts 7.5 kw at 120/208 volts Not sure what this means, exactly. On my service entry, it is hooked up to a 50 amp breaker, which I understand should handle the oven with every burner on.

Thanks for the replies! Right...CO. Monoxide. As in "one." My chemistry teacher would be ashamed. So the freezer was installed later, and had not been installed at the time of the second outage. The freezer is on its own circuit. Brand new. Energy Star. The fridge is on a circuit with the septic alarm (for some reason). Also brand new, and Energy Star. There are two panels with the transfer switch in between. The one main is a 200 and the one that the generator powers is a 100. The two switches in question are 20 amp. One has a purple button on it. One has a white button on it. They have "test" embossed on it. I can get a picture when I get home tonight. Yes, the CO is a worry. How can i figure out how it is getting in? Is this something the builder should have anticipated? Or the electrician? Again, thanks for the replies.