Rules for Resetting or Replacing Circuit Breakers

• Circuit breakers are easy to reset or replace. Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images

  Circuit breakers control the flow of electricity from the service panel in your house to the various circuits that power your lights, appliances and other electric objects. Circuit breakers serve the same purpose as fuses but only need to be reset after they have been tripped, unlike fuses, which need to be replaced.

Tripped Breaker

• A breaker trips when an excessive load is put on a circuit, usually by something like a hair dryer or toaster, or as a result of several large appliances being turned on simultaneously. A breaker is designed to be the weakest point in a circuit so that the circuit is broken at the breaker rather than overheating in a wire somewhere inside the wall. When the breaker trips to "off," all electricity in the circuit ceases, which is why half the things in your kitchen die when you try to turn on the microwave and the toaster at the same time. A simple rule to avoid breakers tripping is to avoid overloading the circuits.

Turning on a Breaker

• Turning a tripped breaker back on is very simple. Open the front of your service panel and look for the breaker that shows an orange bar across its center. This is a sign that it has been tripped to "off." Turn it back on and the circuit will work again. The rule for turning breakers on is to only do it if you know why it went off. If it was as a direct result of something you were doing, and you've stopped doing it, it's perfectly safe to turn it back on. If it tripped spontaneously (something that very rarely happens), you may have some kind of electrical irregularity or malfunction in your system.

Replacing a Breaker

• If you have a malfunctioning breaker, or you need to replace it in order to install a larger circuit, turn off the main breaker in your service panel. This is the large black switch that's off to the side of the rows of smaller breaker switches. This will cut all power to your house. After turning it off, unscrew the front panel that surrounds the breakers. This gives you access to the breakers and to the wires that are connected to all of them. Depending on the kind of breakers that you have in your panel, you can either loosen the screws and disconnect the wires that are attached to the defective breaker in order to remove it, or simply snap it out of the cleats that hold it at top and bottom and snap a new one into the same position. Replace the panel and screw it on securely before turning the power back on.