Taking Care Of A Tripped Circuit Breaker

By Author: Matt Morgan
Total Articles: 74
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Your circuit breaker, which is also referred to as a fuse box, is a special container that holds all of the circuit breakers for your home. This box can be located inside or outside of your home, but is generally found in a convenient location that makes it easy for you to access. This way, you can turn off electrical power as necessary when making household repairs.

Protecting Your Home with Circuit Breakers

In some homes, you may find more than one circuit breaker panel. Generally, there is still one main panel and the others are simply sub panels that originated from the main breaker. Whether your home has one or several circuit breakers, the purpose of these boxes is to keep the electrical circuits protected. This, in turn, keeps your home protected because the breaker stops the current flow if a fault or overload develops.

If a fault or overload occurs, the breaker trips and stops the current from flowing. When this occurs, it is often referred to as a blown fuse. In order to restore the flow of electricity, the circuit breaker will need to be reset.

Resetting a Circuit Breaker

Before ...
... resetting a circuit breaker, it is important to first be sure it is safe. In order to do this, you will need to unplug or turn of any devices that are being powered by that circuit. Then, locate the circuit breaker that was tripped.

It should be easy to find the tripped circuit breaker because the switch will be in the OFF position. Many actually have the word OFF on them, which is visible when the breaker is tripped. If not, simply look for the breaker with the switch in the middle rather than all the way to one side.

Once you have located the proper circuit breaker, move the switch all the way to the off potion and then move it back to the on position. At this point, electricity will be restored to the circuit. If the breaker trips before you have the chance to plug anything back in or turn anything back on, you know the problem is either in the actual breaker or you have a serious wiring problem. In this case, you might want to call a professional to help you with the repair unless you have taken electrical courses and know how to fix this type of problem.

If the circuit breaker trips after you turn something back on or plug something in, there is probably a sort in the device or the device may be putting too much of a load on your circuit. In this case, you may need to replace the device or put the device on a different circuit that is capable of handling the load the device requires.