We’ve all experienced a circuit breaker trip—maybe when you were testing out your brand-new washer and dryer or too many people in your house were using electrical appliances—when suddenly the power just cuts off. While it may be annoying to lose power in your home, a circuit breaker trip is ultimately protecting your family and your house.
More often than not, a circuit breaker trip happens because your circuit is completely overloaded—resulting in the loss of power. Once the overload is detected, or the issue that’s making it difficult for the electricity to properly travel through the circuit, the breaker trips and shuts itself off as a way to prevent fires or damage to your entire electrical system and your home.
How to Fix a Tripped Breaker
Most of the time, a tripped breaker can be easily resolved by opening your circuit breaker box and flipping the specific switch on the panel (they’re usually labeled based on the rooms in your house) back “on” to allow electricity to travel through the circuit again. A circuit breaker trip can cause total power loss in your home or just in a specific area depending on where the overload or error is occurring.
It’s not rare for a tripped breaker to happen more than once in your home—so don’t stress! We advise you to call a residential electrician if it becomes a regular occurrence in your household to make a visit to your circuit breaker box to fix a tripped breaker.
What Causes A Circuit Breaker Trip?
A circuit breaker trip is not only bothersome, but it can also be detrimental to your electrical system. But what causes it to happen in the first place? Oftentimes, homeowners don’t realize when there are no free spaces in their circuit breaker box’s panel, and when they add new circuits into the panel it overwhelms the system. Other times, electrical connections are disrupted due to double-tapped circuits in the panel box—when two wires are located under one circuit breaker.
When an electrician isn’t called in to help with your home’s critical electrical systems—like your circuit breaker—you risk the chance of major electrical errors. When you ignore a circuit breaker trip or try to constantly fix it by switching it “on” and “off,” your breakers will most likely start nuisance tripping.
When this occurs, your system is telling you that it cannot handle the current of electricity that’s trying to pass through your circuit to power your devices. In addition to overloads, circuit breaker trips can happen due to faulty wires and damaged electrical plugs in your home. If you’re not sure why your circuit breaker continues to go out on you, it’s best to call a professional who can quickly and efficiently detect and solve your power problem.
Tripped Breaker?
Call JPS Electrical Services Our certified, licensed electricians will work with you through the entire repair process—providing you with a detailed timeline based on the specific scope of work. Visit JPSElectricalServices.com to learn more and explore our available electrical repair services.
