Home Repair and Paint Guide

Located in your home is one of the most important safety devices you own - the circuit breaker. This device protects you and your family from electrical hazards by interrupting the flow of electricity on a defective circuit. Although the average homeowner can perform basic troubleshooting, you should hire a licensed electrician if repairs are needed. A short circuit in a device can produce a very nasty shock. You could be seriously injured.

Your home will have one or more circuit breaker panels installed. Older homes might have fuses instead of breakers. The purpose is the same - disconnect a circuit if the current flow is too high for the capacity of the wiring.

There will usually be a large main breaker at the top of the panel with a high amp rating. The breakers for your branch circuits are physically smaller and have a lower amp rating. Be advised that shutting off the main breaker will shutdown the branch circuits, but there is still high voltage in the breaker panel. The main wires that lead into the panel are still active, and shutting off the main breaker will not stop current flow to these main leads. This can be a hazard if you remove the front of the panel.

A circuit breaker provides protection for each of your circuits by stopping the flow of current if an overload occurs. When the load on a circuit becomes too great, the breaker on that circuit trips and ceases the flow of current. The rating of breakers is matched to the diameter (called gauge) of the attached wire. Higher amp ratings require larger wire size to handle the current flow without overheating. This is very important because wires that get too hot will melt the insulation and can very easily cause a fire.

The basic circuit breaker consists of a simple switch, connected to either a bimetallic strip or an electromagnet. In the electromagnetic design, high current loads will energize the magnet and cause the breaker to trip. A bimetallic strip design works on the same principle, except that a high current load will cause the strip to heat and bend. This trips the breaker.

Another type of circuit breaker is the ground fault circuit interrupter, or GFCI. These are designed to protect people from electrical shock, as well as prevent damage to the wiring. Operation is complex, but basically, a GFCI constantly monitors current flow in the neutral and hot wires of a circuit. Normally, current flow in both sides will be equal. If the hot wire connects to ground - somebody accidentally touches the hot wire, for example - the current level surges in the hot wire, but not in the neutral wire. The GFCI breaks the circuit as soon as this happens. Since it doesn’t have to wait for current to climb to unsafe levels, the GFCI reacts much more quickly than a conventional breaker.

A breaker that keeps tripping means there is an overload on the attached circuit. There may be too many devices operating at the same time, or maybe a short circuit (also called a ground fault). In any case, proceed with extreme caution. Never replace a breaker with one of higher rating. This is a guaranteed way to cause overheating of the attached wire. And be careful if you suspect a short circuit in a device. This can easily injure or kill you.

It is common to have breakers trip due to too many devices operating on the same circuit. This happens a lot in kitchens where high current appliances might be running at the same time. Toasters, countertop ovens, microwave ovens, electric skillets, etc. All of these devices draw quite a bit of current. If several are operating at the same time, they could trip a breaker if all are on the same circuit.

The solution to this problem is to have an electrician add one or more additional circuits. Sometimes this can be accomplished by rerouting current flow from an adjacent underused circuit in the same area. Whatever you do, don’t just increase the rating of the existing circuit breaker or fuse. As stated before, this can very easily cause a fire.