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For the average homeowner, investigating why your circuit breaker keeps tripping can often be frustrating – but there are a few common offenders to look for.
In simple terms, a circuit breaker is an automatically-operated electrical switch designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by overload of electricity or short circuit. A circuit breaker’s function is to detect a fault condition and, by interrupting continuity, to immediately discontinue electrical flow.
While most of us have a circuit breaker present in our homes, we tend to avoid this little electrical product until something goes wrong. When a circuit breaker keeps tripping, or shutting off the power to your property, it’s usually because there’s an item or factor that’s continuously causing an issue – but how do you identify the culprit?
Your circuit breaker’s job is to protect your entire power system from an excessive electrical load that could lead to electrical shock and electrical damage. If you see that your house or a particular area in your home loses electricity, then more often than not, something is wrong.
Your circuit breaker should protect your electrical system from electrical shocks and electrical damage due to faulty electrical wirings, overloading and even appliance failure. Aside from losing power, you might also experience flickering lights when your circuit breaker trips.
Despite this, it can be tricky to identify the problem – is there something wrong with an appliance or a cord, or is it the circuit breaker itself? If your circuit breaker keeps tripping, it’s likely that it’s because of one of the following reasons.
Excessive Electrical Loads – Excess wiring load can happen when the wiring of a residential property doesn’t have the capacity to handle the electrical draw of the equipment plugged into their circuit. The first symptom of this problem is usually when a circuit breaker keeps tripping, so if this happens regularly, chat to a residential electrician about upgrading your system.
Faulty Wiring – When electricity goes to a different path or suddenly takes a different shortcut to other materials, it can cause a fire and an electric shock if you come into contact with it as there is a low resistance connection between two electrical conductors that supply power to the circuit. This can happen with faulty or loose wiring in both the structure or with appliances.
Damaged Safety Switch – When in action, the installed safety switch is triggered by the unit detecting a change in the flow of electricity through the circuit that it is fitted to. A broad variety of issues or problems can cause the safety switch to be triggered, but it can take on a life of its own if the device is damaged, old and therefore, faulty.
Old Appliances – Since some appliances have wear and tear, there may be times that the electrical current leaks, causing imbalances in the electrical circuit. When this happens, your safety switch is triggered to shut off, and homeowners should unplug all of their electrical appliances and turn the safety switch on until the power comes back.
Overloaded Power Circuits – Are you guilty of plugging in way too many charging ports into a power board? Double adapters, power boards, extension cords and voltage converters all plugged together in a mass of mixed-up power, and the resulting electricity draw can easily exceed the circuit’s rated amperage, and cause the breaker to trip.
If you’re on the hunt for a decent sparky to help you work out why your circuit breaker keeps tripping, finding a reputable and local electrician to bring your vision to life or fix an electrical issue can feel a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Thankfully, the team at Shield Electrical offer a solution.
Here at Shield Electrical, we are a Brisbane based electrical contracting company, and pride ourselves on being shockingly good at watt we do. For us, friendly and reliable customer service isn’t just a nice add on – it’s how we do business. Don’t take our word for it though, just ask our clients.
Established in 2015, Shield Electrical is lighting the way when it comes to providing electrical work with world class customer service. With our headquarters based in the central suburban pocket of Coorparoo, our team of qualified industry professionals are readily available to deliver quality workmanship, fast quotes, and affordable pricing.
Whether you’re on the hunt for an electrician for domestic services, residential, commercial and industrial construction, security systems or even just further energy saving tips, get in touch with us at Shield today to source practical solutions that don’t break the bank.
