What To Do When Your Circuit Breaker Trips
One of the main reasons why circuit breakers trip constantly is due to energy loads. This happens when you want a particular circuit to provide more electricity than its actual capacity. As a result, it may cause overheating of the circuit which puts all the electrical appliances connected to the circuit at risk. Then the breaker’s safeguard is to switch the circuit to the OFF position, potentially even preventing a major fire.
You can get your power back by following these three easy steps:
- Turn off all the lights and appliances affected by the power outage. Switch everything you can to the OFF position. If you’re the electrical appliances has no manual OFF switch, unplug it.
- Locate your circuit box and identify the breaker(s) which is in the OFF position. You can easily find the outlier from the circuit box.
- Flip the breaker from OFF to ON. It’s best not to have any electronics drawing electricity when the circuit breaker is reset or further damage could be done. The sudden surge of power could adversely affect your home computer, fan, or gaming system, for example. Make sure you have turn off all electrical appliances before you reset.
- Last step is to test the circuit. Turn on the appliances along the circuit. If it trips again immediately, it’s time to call an electrician, as it indicates a more serious problem with the circuit.
Avoiding Tripped Breakers
When a circuit breaker trips repeatedly, or trips again instantly after you reset it, very likely something more serious is present. Most typically, circuit breakers trip because a circuit is drawing excessive current than it can afford. This usually occurs with appliances that have motors or heating elements such as microwave, ovens and more, as they place rather high electrical load on circuits.
In homes with older wiring, it’s common for two or more appliances to be fed by a single circuit that will lead to overwhelming current to that circuit hence result in tripped breakers. It is advisable to have an electrical upgrade performed by an electrician, who can add additional circuits to your system to solve it.
Here are some warning signs before power trips. Take extra caution when one of these occurs.
- Burning Smells
- Tingling feeling when touching items
- Electrical appliances creating sparks
- Flickering lights
- Electric heating/cooling malfunction
- Switches/outlets working intermittently
- Light switch/socket malfunction
- Power overloads
A house fire or electrocution is hazardous, and may be fatal. If you are unsure what to do next, please be safe engage professional electrical services provider in Singapore such as Winway Home Services for immediate help! You may contact us at +65 9734 1593 for further enquiry. Check out our services here!