7 Reasons Why You Need Circuit Breakers for Your Home

Introduction

Circuit breakers are crucial safety devices to protect your home from electrical hazards. Typically located within a home’s electrical service panel or a circuit breaker box, circuit breakers are designed to detect and put an end to excess current within a circuit. With the current removed, the electrical line, devices and/or appliances causing the issue can be inspected, repaired and replaced. This article will cover seven reasons why your home needs circuit breakers.

Reason #1: Limiting Current Flow

Circuit breakers are electrical devices that operate automatically, made to protect electrical devices and circuits from electrical hazards and potential damage that shorted or overloaded circuits can cause. The primary function of circuit breakers is to limit and cut off current flow once the breaker detects an electrical fault. While fuses are also designed to protect electrical devices from circuit issues, they have to be replaced after they have performed their safety function and blow out.

Reason #2: Mitigating Short Circuits

Left without proper electrical maintenance and repairs, short circuits can lead to reduced circuit performance, overheating equipment and devices, fires or possibly even explosions. If a circuit breaker in your home trips as soon as you turn on an appliance or device, and it will not reset, then you are likely dealing with a short circuit.

If you are unsure of what is causing the short, or if you are not sure it is even a short, it is probably best to contact a professional electrician. An electrician on Brisbane Northside would be trained to identify and fix short circuits, protecting your home and electrical equipment safely and effectively.

Reason #3: Managing Overloaded Circuits

If the appliances are used simultaneously within a home and exceed the home’s wattage rating, then the circuit breaker will trip. If a faulty appliance is plugged in and activated, it could cause an overloaded circuit as well. An overloaded circuit can be identified if a home’s circuit breaker trips, can only be reset after experiencing a cooling down period, and then trips again later when the circuit is overloaded again. Tripping in the event of an overloaded circuit is precisely what circuit breakers should do, and it makes them very important safety elements in your home’s circuits.

Reason #4: Ground Fault Indication

Ground faults occur when live wires make contact with objects such as metal outlet boxes or ground wires. This is another kind of short circuit, and circuit breakers can assist you or a professional electrician in identifying the cause of the ground fault. Like other short circuits, you will not be able to reset the breaker properly until the ground fault issue is addressed.

Reason #5: Electrical Appliance Reliance

Circuit breakers are a primary means of defense from electrical issues that can affect your home’s electrical appliances, such as those listed above. Your appliance cannot operate nearly as consistently and efficiently without proper circuit breakers.

Reason #6: Overheated Electrical Panel

Your home will need circuit breakers or replacements if you can smell burning odors around your electrical panel. This smell indicates that your home’s insulations and wires in the electrical panel have overheated. That means that whatever electrical safety devices are installed in your home are not working and that there is likely a short somewhere in your home’s circuit. As the problem is affecting your electrical panel and not just one appliance or wire, it is best to cut off the main power and reach out to an electrician for emergency maintenance.

Reason #7: Physical Damage

Your home will also need circuit breakers if you spot physical damage on or near your home’s appliances and outlets. That indicates that your electrical wiring has melted and is a serious fire hazard that requires immediate attention. Such as with a burning odor, your home’s electrical panel will need to be inspected and repaired. Circuit breakers are designed to prevent these hazardous conditions. If the problem has already become this bad, however, you should not hesitate to contact an electrician and unplug any devices connected to the offending circuit.

Sujain Thomas is Data IT professional and blogger