Most people will occasionally encounter a situation where one of the circuit breakers in their home trips. A tripped circuit breaker isn’t always something you need to worry about since you can just reset it to turn the power back on. However, a tripped breaker can also be a sign of a serious electrical issue. That is why it’s important to know what steps to take any time a breaker in your house trips.
How to Determine Which Circuit Breaker Is Tripped
You’ll know instantly when a circuit breaker trips since it will cause all of the lights and electronics in one room or area of the home to go out. When this happens, you’ll then need to go to your electrical panel and find the correct breaker. This is so that you can reset it and turn the power to that room or area back on. Knowing which breaker controls the electrical circuit in each part of the house or for each major appliance is easy if all of the circuits are labeled. Unfortunately, electricians don’t always end up labeling the circuits and breakers when installing the electrical panel or you just may not be able to clearly read the writing in your panel.
You’ll be able to easily see which breakers are on and which are tripped or shut off. The bar on a circuit breaker will lay down flat when the breaker is on. If the breaker is tripped or shut off, the bar will be flipped up toward the middle of the breaker. This bar either flips up to the left or right depending on whether the breaker is on the right or left side of the panel.
The only issue when trying to identify the correct breaker is that there may be more than one that’s shut off. That’s because sometimes a home will have one or more circuits that were abandoned at some point and/or are just shut off. This is fairly common if a person had a circuit installed outdoors so they could plug in holiday lights which are no longer used. Another common situation is if the home originally had an electric water heater and it got replaced with a gas unit at some point. In this case, the electricians would usually just shut off the breaker instead of getting rid of the circuit. That is just in case the homeowner wants to switch back to an electric water heater in the future.
What to Do When Resetting a Tripped Circuit Breaker
If multiple breakers are shut off and you can’t determine which one is which, your only option will be to turn them back on one at a time. Before resetting a circuit breaker, you should make sure to unplug everything in the room or part of the home where the power is out. This is both to reduce the chances of the breaker immediately tripping a second time and also to potentially enable you to determine what caused the breaker to trip.
A circuit breaker will trip any time the circuit it controls gets overloaded, which means more power flows through it than it is designed to handle. The two main reasons that a breaker will trip are due to a power surge caused by a short circuit. It also could be because you overloaded the circuit by plugging too many things into it. A short circuit usually occurs due to either a damaged/frayed wire or a loose connection within the circuit itself or anything connected to it.
If you don’t unplug everything first, all of the devices may turn on as soon as you reset the breaker. That means the circuit could immediately get overloaded again and cause the breaker to trip. Unplugging everything from the circuit also sometimes allows you to pinpoint or at least narrow down the problem. If everything is unplugged and the breaker trips immediately after you reset it, you can be sure that none of your devices are at fault. That generally means that something is causing a short in the circuit itself.
If the breaker stays on, you should then start testing everything you originally had plugged in. This means plugging in and turning on each device one at a time to see if any of them cause the breaker to trip. If any of the devices causes the breaker to trip when you turn it on, it means the device is unsafe and shouldn’t be used.
What to Do If the Circuit Breaker Trips Again
If you have everything unplugged and the breaker trips a second time after resetting it, you should keep it shut off. That’s again because this usually indicates that there’s a short in the circuit, which means it is unsafe to use. The power surge that results from a short circuit can sometimes start an electrical fire since it can cause the wires to overheat or even send out sparks. This power surge can also end up damaging or destroying appliances and devices connected to the circuit. These issues are why you should contact a licensed electrical contractor to get the circuit and your electrical panel inspected if this issue ever arise. Scheduling an electrical inspection is also essential if you have different circuit breakers that often trip or multiple breakers that trip at the same time.
How a Circuit Breaker Works
Electrical circuits are loops. That means the current flows out of the electrical panel through the circuit’s live wire that feeds the outlets and light fixtures. It then eventually goes back to the panel through the neutral wire. The way that a circuit breaker works is that it breaks this loop so that the power can no longer flow, hence the name circuit breaker.
Inside a circuit breaker are two metal “contactors” that the current flows through. One contactor is stationary, and the other moves back and forth when you flip the breaker on and off. When the breaker is on, this moving contractor is flipped to where it touches the stationary contactor so that power can flow. When the breaker trips or you shut it off, a lever moves the moving contactor away so that it doesn’t touch the stationary contactor and the circuit instantly opens or breaks.
Most circuit breakers use either a bi-metallic strip or an electromagnet to detect electrical overloads, and some breakers use both. The bi-metallic strip works by detecting the heat that is produced when excessive current flows through the circuit. What happens is that the heat causes the metal to get hot enough that it bends or flexes, which activates the lever that controls the moving contactor. With an electromagnet, what happens is that the excessive current causes the electromagnetic force to spike. This additional force is what then causes the lever to activate and the breaker to trip.
Reliable Electrical Experts
If you’re experiencing any electrical issues in your home and need to have your electrical system inspected, Childers Air Plumbing & Electric is always ready to help. We’ve been serving the Beckley area since 1951, and we have an experienced team of licensed electricians ready to expertly handle all of your repair and installation needs. Our skilled plumbers and HVAC technicians are also on hand to help if you need any plumbing, air conditioning or heating services. Contact us today for an electrical safety inspection or any of your other home service needs.
