A circuit breaker is a switching device controlled manually or automatically for controlling and protecting the electrical power system at your home. Here’s a continuous electricity passage through the wires and circuits of your house, and this holds the chances of circuit failure. You may experience circuit failure often, and it can irritate you. A tripped circuit breaker is caused mainly when a large amount of electricity flows through the circuit. As the circuit breaker trips, the flow of electricity is stopped, so it may not cause your house more damage or overheat the circuits. So knowing the causes of a tripped circuit breaker can help you to do something about it.
1) Overloading Circuits
Overloaded circuits are one of the most common causes of tripping circuit breakers. Circuit gets overloaded when it tries to load more electricity than it’s capacity. If too many electrical appliances are connected to the circuit and are being used at the same time, it can cause overheating of the circuit. The overheating can lead to a fire or damaging all the appliances plugged into the circuit. But the circuit breaker prevents the fire and damage by tripping. To prevent overloading circuits, plug in fewer electrical devices, and if there are many, then turn off some of the devices. This will reduce the electrical load on the circuit breaker.
2) Short Circuit
A short circuit is a more severe and dangerous problem than overloaded circuits. The cause of a short circuit is when a hot wire comes in contact with a neutral wire in any of your electrical outlets. When the hot wire and the neutral wires come in contact, a large amount of electricity flows through the circuit. This will create more heat in the circuit, which will be more than usual. The circuit breaker trips to prevent a fire due to a short circuit. Loose connections or faulty wiring can be the reason for the short circuit. You can recognize a short circuit with the burning smell left around or discolouration around the breaker.
3) Ground Fault
A ground fault surge is similar to the short circuit. The ground fault occurs when a hot wire comes in contact with the ground wire that is made of copper or with the outlet box that is connected with the ground wire. The crossing of wires will generate more heat than the capacity of a circuit. A ground fault can be dangerous and cause fire or damage the appliances. From preventing this to happen the circuit breaker trips and cut off the current flow.
Often, the occurrence of such circuit failure can indicate that your electricity wirings and circuits need attention. You shouldn’t try to solve these problems on your own and always call our electricians to handle such problems. You can call us anytime for circuit breaker issue or any other home electrical system issues.
