You plop down on your sofa after a long week at work and grab the remote to turn on the television, only to be met with a black screen. Frowning, you walk over to your light switch and flick the switch up and down, but there’s no light. With an exasperated sigh, you trudge down to your basement to reset your breaker. This isn’t the first time this has happened, and there’s no obvious reason you can detect as to why your breaker keeps tripping. What exactly is going on, and how can you put a stop to this constant tripping?
There are several possible reasons why your breaker keeps tripping, some of which you may be able to diagnose yourself. It’s important to keep in mind that messing around with a circuit is serious stuff—and potentially dangerous. Before you inspect your panel, read through this article to gain an understanding of how circuit breakers work, why your breaker might keep tripping and important safety precautions to take to ensure your safety. We’ll also outline exactly how to know when it’s time to recruit the services of a qualified local electrician.
Why Does My Breaker Keep Tripping?
When your breaker trips, your first reaction is likely one of concern or annoyance. A tripped breaker is a sign that something has gone wrong, and depending on when it happens, it can cause a huge interruption in your day. While it can certainly be an inconvenience, it’s an important safety feature that protects you and your home from a fire.
How Circuit Breakers Work
To understand how circuit breakers work and how a circuit breaker trip occurs, you must first understand what exactly a circuit is. Put simply, a circuit is an electrical current that flows cyclically. A circuit is made up of the power source, the load (or the device being powered) and the connector between them, called a conductor. A current flows from the power source to the load, and then from the load back to the power source in a continuous cycle—or circuit.
There are three main types of wiring throughout your home:
- Hot wire. The hot wire is the wire that acts as a conductor of electricity by carrying the current from the power source to the load.
- Neutral wire. To complete the circuit, neutral wires carry the current from the load back to the power source.
- Ground wire. As a safety precaution, the ground wire provides a path for the current to flow into the ground. Without this, you could unintentionally become a conductor for electricity to escape into the ground when touching a wire carrying a short circuit (more on this below).
A breaker is designed to ‘break’ or interrupt the circuit in the event that something goes wrong with the circuit. Generally, this involves the circuit carrying more electricity than it is designed to handle safely or overheating, which could lead to an electrical fire.
A Note About Fuse Boxes
If you live in an older home, you may not have a breaker. Instead, you’ll probably have something called a fuse. Fuses are pieces of metal wire that are plugged into a fuse box, which is similar to an electrical panel. It acts as a conductor for a circuit, but when something goes wrong, instead of being ‘tripped,’ the fuse melts, effectively halting the current. This is what’s known as a blown fuse.
In many ways, fuses and breakers protect against the same thing. Both provide protection from an overloaded circuit, while breakers also protect against short circuits. Fuses also tend to be less convenient than breakers, as a blown fuse needs to be replaced entirely, while a tripped breaker simply needs to be flipped back on. Most homeowners know what to do when their breaker trips, but if you’re unaware of the steps required to fix this or replace a blown fuse, it’s worth looking into to reduce the length of interruption experienced.
Common Causes of a Tripped Breaker
A tripped breaker is a common issue that most homeowners and renters will experience at least once throughout their lifetime. While severe storms, such as lightning storms, can sometimes cause your breaker to trip, the three most common causes include circuit overloads, short circuits, and ground faults.
Circuit Overload
Some of the most common questions we get about tripped breakers include:
- Why does my breaker keep tripping in my house?
- Why does my breaker keep tripping in one room?
- Why does my breaker keep tripping immediately upon turning on a certain light or appliance?
The answer to these questions is often that you have an overloaded circuit.
In the past few years, more and more homeowners have experienced an overloaded circuit. Factors such as a rise in electric vehicles and EVSE installation, more people working from home, and newer technology that requires more electrical juice have exhausted the capacity of some homes. Newly built homes are less likely to have this problem, but older homes built before air conditioning units, computers, large flatscreen televisions, and high-powered appliances are more likely to overload a circuit. When a current flows through a single circuit to multiple loads requiring greater power than the circuit is designed to provide, the breaker will trip.
If you feel comfortable doing so, you can test for this problem by turning off all your switches in your panel, unplugging or turning off all your devices, appliances, and electrical gadgets, and then turning your switches back on. Then, one by one, plug in or turn on your devices. Check the panel every time you plug a new appliance in. If the breaker trips, do this experiment again but plug things on in a different order. If your breaker keeps tripping, you know you have an overloaded circuit.
Off the bat, let us mention a few solutions here. Dedicated circuits may resolve this issue. Moreover, additional circuit installations and upgrades can be performed by a licensed electrician to ensure the right supply is being provided in your home.
Short Circuit
As briefly mentioned above, short circuits are circuits that are intended to have longer pathways but end up following shorter pathways due to two wires—a hot wire and a neutral wire—inadvertently touching. This causes wires to heat up suddenly, leading to a breaker that keeps tripping. Some possible causes of a short circuit include:
- Loose connections or loose wire
- Corroded wires
- Faulty wiring, fixtures, appliances, plugs or switches
- Wiring damaged by pest activity
Depending on where the short circuit has occurred, you may even be able to smell it. If you suddenly lose power and can notice a burning smell, you likely have a short circuit. When these occur in appliances you use, such as a microwave oven or a vacuum cleaner, stop using these appliances right away, as you could experience an electrical shock. Short circuits that occur behind your walls will need to be fixed by a qualified electrician.
Ground Fault
As stated above, short circuits are caused by contact between hot and neutral wires. If you wondered what happens when hot and ground wires come in contact with each other, here’s your answer: ground faults.
Electricity naturally strives to reach the ground, which is why it’s so important that ground wires provide this access to currents so that an electrical flow does not use the human body to get where it wants to go. When a ground fault occurs, the ground wire no longer provides this access point. A person who walks near a ground fault or touches a faulty wire will become that pathway. Often, this happens in damp locations with excess moisture, such as bathrooms and kitchens. Water is a strong conductor of electricity and provides the right conditions for an electrical shock to occur.
When ground faults happen, the current suddenly surges. Your circuit breaker senses this and trips to protect you. As an added layer of protection, ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs) are installed in high-risk areas of the home to protect you from experiencing even a millisecond of an electric shock that may occur when your breaker trips. These special electrical outlets are like mini circuit breakers and will interrupt circuits even more quickly than your circuit breaker.
Safety Hazards To Look Out For If Your Breaker Keeps Tripping
While technically a good thing as it is intended to keep you safe, if your breaker keeps tripping, it means that something is wrong with your system. While the above information on the common causes of a breaker that keeps tripping is intended to help you troubleshoot and determine what’s happening, this can also be a sign of several dangerous situations.
Electrical systems in newer homes are installed according to rigorous electrical codes. Though there’s a chance your installation was performed incorrectly, your level of risk is much lower than that of a homeowner who is experiencing problems in a much older home. It is, therefore, paramount that you take many precautions when interacting with your electrical panel, appliances and any exposed wiring.
Our top tips to ensure your safety include:
- Never attempt to repair your electrical equipment on your own
- Invest in an electrical safety inspection service
- Get GFCIs installed in your bathroom and kitchen if you don’t already have them
- Do not touch any equipment that has gotten wet
- Ensure you replace blown fuses with replacements of an identical rating
- Avoid using extension cords consistently
- Stop using cords or devices that show signs of damage
The Number One Solution to a Breaker That Keeps Tripping
When our customers contact us about this problem, they want to know how to fix a circuit breaker that keeps tripping. In all circumstances, it is imperative that you hire a licensed electrician to solve the problem. Unless you’ve received a formal education in electricity and electrical infrastructure, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to correctly diagnose and repair the problem safely. Death by electricity is unfortunately not uncommon, and there’s never a valid reason to put your safety at risk rather than contact a professional electrician to conduct a wiring inspection.
An electrical repair expert will also be able to identify potential problems that are safety hazards just waiting to occur. By spending a reasonable sum of money on an inspection, you’ll get peace of mind and protect yourself and your family. Some of the services that your electrician may recommend include:
- Electrical safety inspections
- GFCI outlet installation
- Electrical code updates and corrections
- Wiring upgrades
- Circuit breaker replacements
- Electrical panel upgrades
- EV charger installation
A reputable electrician will be able to explain the issue in layman's terms, inquire about your own goals and needs for your home’s electrical system, and make recommendations accordingly.
Breaker Keeps Tripping? Mr. Electric Is Here To Help
Since the first Mr. Electric was established in 2004, we’ve grown from a single business location to more than 200 locally owned and operated franchises worldwide. We attribute our success to our three guiding principles: integrity, respect, and customer focus.
We’re in the business of helping people, which means we want them to be fully satisfied with our services and see the value in them. To do this, we hire electricians who are not just passionate about their work and have strong attention to detail but also enjoy interacting with their customers and ensuring that their customers’ needs are being met. We also provide upfront pricing so that there are no unpleasant surprises at the end of your service. In addition, you can be sure that you’ll receive outstanding quality workmanship with this single upfront price. If our workmanship does not meet your expectations, you have a full year to contact us and let us know. Once you do, we’ll come back and make it right.
Now that you know what to do if your breaker keeps tripping, give our team at Mr. Electric a call to arrange an electrical system inspection for your home. You can also fill out our online quote request form to request an appointment for convenient service from a qualified commercial or residential electrician.
