Breaker Trip: All you need to know about it.

         The circuit breaker is a piece of equipment which can make or break a circuit either manually or automatically under all conditions(no load, full load and short circuit conditions).

        The circuit breaker trips as a result of heavy electricity flows through it or due to it can not handle the excess current load. This means the flow of electricity is cut off to protect your circuit overheating and being more damaged.   

Table of content:

1. Why does my breaker keep tripping?

2. How to reset the Circuit Breaker?

3. How can you tell if your Circuit breaker has gone bad?

4. What should you do when the breaker keeps tripping?   

    

      If there is no circuit breaker trips as a consequence of any fault, The house fire would have been quite a common issue. When a circuit breaker keeps tripping, you have to go wherever the circuit breaker is located and restore the power on again by resetting/closing the circuit breaker.

✯ Why does my breaker keep tripping?

        If the circuit breaker is frequently tripping, it indicates there are some issue with the breaker or the over all circuit. There may be a short circuit in one of your appliances or a ground fault. May be there is a circuit overload or its a indication of your circuit breaker box is faulty. 

        These all are the main reasons that might be causing your circuit breaker to trip more frequently. If you can find out the specific reason behind the constant tripping, you can do something to resolve it.

Let us look at the five main reasons that cause the circuit breakers to trip.

1. Circuit Overload

        The circuit overload is one of the main reasons for tripping circuit breaker frequently. This occurs when you want a particular circuit to provide more electricity that its actual capacity.

2. Short Circuits

        Another very common reason that causes a breaker to trip is a short circuit, which is more danger than the circuit overload. The short circuit refers the of getting touched together the line and neutral wires. Whenever this happens, a large amount of current will flow through the circuit. 

  

3. Ground Fault

        This is similar to the short circuit fault in which the line wire touches the ground instead of the neutral wire. This will cause more electricity to pass through it. The circuit breaker can't handle it hence got tripped. 

 

4. Arc Fault

        Sometimes arc fault is also considered to be a major reason behind the circuit breaker tripping frequently. It happens due to the loose connection of power cables which may creates heat and causes electrical fire eventually. If you hear your light switch hissing or the outlet buzzing, you are experiencing an arc fault. 

5. Defective Circuit breaker

        if the above reasons are not causing the breaker tripped, then maybe your circuit breaker is at fault.

Read more: Construction of Vacuum Circuit Breaker(VCB)

 ✯ How to reset the Circuit Breaker?

        If any circuit breaker keeps tripping, you will have to reset it. Now the question is How?, how will I do that? Usually there are three state of any circuit breaker: Close/On, Open/Off and Trip. 

        After tripping any breaker the operating handle will be at Trip state.   To reset the breaker, At first turn off the breaker by moving the operating handle and then turn it back on or close state. 

        For your won safety, keep a safe distance from the panel and wear safety goggles in case of any sparks. Before resetting the breaker you should unplug or turn off the devices under this breaker to determine the case of tripping.

✯ How can You tell if your Circuit breaker has gone bad?

    Like other electrical appliance, even the circuit breaker can become faulty. You have to do the inspection job for the following signs:

1. Breaker keeps tripping frequently.

2. Burning smell from the breaker

3. Black burnt marks or other signs of damage on the circuit box.

4. Breaker does not stay at the closed state.

 

Read more: Switchgear components of a circuit breaker.

✯ What should you do when the breaker keeps tripping?

    A power surge or a heavily overloaded appliance can causes too much stress on a circuit breaker. This can cause it to trip frequently. The followings are what you should do if the breaker keeps tripping:

1. Unplug devices: Manually switch off and unplug the devices under that breaker. This is necessary because once the power surges come back and the devices are still on, it may affect them adversely. Also open the load side cable from the breaker for checking purpose.

2. Reset the circuit breaker: move the operating handle of circuit breaker to off position and then turn it on again. This is how you reset a circuit breaker.

3. Check the reasons: After closing the breaker if it trips again immediately then the breaker is faulty itself. Otherwise you need further checking on the load side.

4. Switch to the devices: If the breaker remains at closed state then not requires this step checking. If not, then First connect the load side cable to the breaker during breaker open state and then close the breaker. Check now the breaker is tripping or not. In this way you have to check all the loads whether there is any fault on load or not.  

5. Check or replace: After checking all the devices and cable you will be able to take the decision for replacement or maintenance as per requirement. 

Read more:

1. What is circuit breaker? Working principle of it.

2. What is fuse? Working principle of it. 

3. What are the differences between circuit breaker and fuse? 

4. What are the different ratings of a Circuit breaker?

5. What are the arc Extinction Methods.