Reasons that Causes Your Circuit Breaker to Burst

Specifically designed electrical components that are used to protect us against the risks of electric shock and our homes against fire and other types of damage that can be caused by electrical faults are the circuit breakers. In your electrical switchboard each circuit breaker usually protects one or more related circuits against earth leakage, overload and short circuit.

 

First we need to understand what a circuit is and what the terms overload, short circuit and earth leakage mean if we want to understand what causes an ELCB residual current circuit breaker to burst (or more commonly known as trip).

 

Short Circuits – Something happens really wrong

No matter whether you're drilling a hole in the wall to put up that lovely family picture or digging in the garden for the great new flower box, you run the risk of damaging electrical cables concealed behind walls or in the soil each time you make changes to the house. Direct contact occurs between the individual wires in the cable when you drill a hole through a cable or cut it with a spade. 

This is referred as a short circuit. In such a short circuit situation electrical cables were never designed to withstand the flowing current. In cases such as this, to ensure that the cable does not melt or catch fire the short-circuit protection mechanism in the ABB residual circuit breaker disconnects the electricity supply.

Overloaded Circuits and Tripping of Circuit Breakers

You need to have a proper look around your house at all the socket outlets. Into each socket outlet how many appliances are plugged? There are chances that you've got more than the circuit is designed for. On our electrical installations every day our increasing use of electrical and residual current devices puts more pressure - sometimes to the level where the amount of electricity we use exceeds the amount that the circuit can safely provide us without overheating or getting damaged. The circuit breaker in your switchboard will disconnect the circuit from the electrical supply if this happens.

Learn About the Working of Circuit Breaker

In every home and businesses electrical system, circuit breakers are used, and through the electrical system when too much current flows they are capable of turning off the flow of electricity.

A basic electric circuit look like a loop. You will also find a faulty condition which when allowed continuing can create a power surge that will definitely damage the device to which the electricity is flowing to or can even cause a fire or other forms of damages. In this article you will get to know about electric breaker.

After that the wire heats up and its insulation melts. When there is a cut in the insulation, if the insulation melts or if another conductive material touches both sides of the wires then it can lead to jumping of the electricity from one node of the wire to another. This can even cause fire, short circuit or explosion.

There is one type of miniature circuit breaker that uses electromagnetism and where the electromagnet is in the circuit breaker. With the increase in load the magnetism increases but when it exceeds the designated load, the electromagnet also increases.

 

A second type is a thermal circuit breaker is the second type that to break open the circuit uses heat. There is a bimetallic strip that is made up of two different types of metal with different heating capacities that is welded together. The metal strip will bend with the heat caused by the electricity flowing through the circuit but at different rates.

When the electric current goes beyond the breaker's capacity, there is bending of metal strip at such an angle that it breaks the connection would pull down the breaker's lever and disconnects the movable contact plate from the stationary contact plate. You will find many miniature circuit breaker manufacturers in your area.

A combination of thermal and electromagnetism is used by the third type of breaker. In cases of sudden electric surge the electromagnet pulls the lever down while when there is current overload that causes overheating the bimetallic strip starts working.

Know About the Importance of Circuit Breakers

In a home, circuit breaker is a very important part of electrical wiring because it is a very essential safety feature. Household electricity would not even be practical without circuit breakers as there will be the potential danger of a fire and other hazards. It is an automatically, operated electrical switch that is only designed to provide prevention of electrical circuits from any kind of damage, in case there is a short circuit or overload. Detecting any faulty condition and stopping continuity in order to discontinue the flow of electricity is the main function of the circuit breakers. For the outbreaks of fire majority of the households, short circuits are responsible.

Importance of a Breaker and few facts about short circuit

In between two nodes of an electrical circuit a short circuit is generally an abnormal low-resistance current that are usually meant to have different voltages. This usually ends up having an excess flow of electric current and results in circuit damage that can even lead to a fire, overheating and even explosion. Due to overloading or mostly due to fire breakout short circuit usually occurs. To protect your home a good circuit breaker manufacturer is important. By licensed and professional electrician it is also necessary to get the electrical appliances checked.

 

Compared to fuses the breakers are generally more expensive. But because of the safety factor associated with them most homeowners prefer breakers than fuses. Instead of old fashioned fuses, most electricians and electrical wiring experts prefer vacuum circuit breakers.

 

Importance and the Repair Team

All residential electric specialists know that for the safety of a house circuit breakers are very important. A house can face many potential hazards if circuit breakers are absent, so you need to consult a team that are specialized in upgrades, circuit panel repair and replacement for any kind of problem with circuit breaker. In replacement, updating and repairing a breaker panel, they need to be specialized. For backdated circuit breakers, fuse boxes and even panels that were installed before 1974 their licensed and bonded technicians need to offer smart solutions. New installation should be offered by these specialists and they should help to maintain them. Follow us on- Twitter