understanding circuit breakers

Circuit breakers can be key to making sure your home operates properly. This is especially important considering that 46,700 fires per year are caused by electrical failures.

For those of you who want to start understanding circuit breakers better, you may be wondering where to begin. Well, this guide is here to give you some tips on fuses and circuit breakers.

Understanding Circuit Breakers

Let’s start by talking about the purpose of circuit breakers. The goal with these is to make sure that all of the power in your house is working properly. This device helps you control the flow of electricity and it is there to help you in case you do run into issues.

What kind of issues can you have in your home? Some possibilities include a blown fuse, a power outage, something wrong with your HVAC system, and more.

You need to know where the circuit breaker in your house is and when it is time to use it. Having this knowledge could potentially save your house from further damage if you have an electrical failure.

Protecting Your Home

Most circuit breakers have protection mechanisms installed in the devices. These protect your home from possible electrical faults or blown fuses.

The protection mechanism activates your operating mechanism in the event that there is an electrical fault around your home.

Then, once you get to the operating mechanism, you can perform further action from here. This typically involves opening the breaker or shutting it down. What you do with this entirely depends on your specific situation.

Protecting the Circuit Breaker

Not only do you have to worry about protecting your home but you also have to worry about protecting the circuit breaker itself. This can help you prevent damage from happening to it due to incidents inside your home.

For example, let’s say that you have kids that like to play rough. They could swing a baseball bat around your home or toss balls around your home.

What if they do this in a room that your circuit breaker is in?

That is where the molded frame comes in. This adds a layer of protection to your circuit breaker so that it does not get easily destroyed if it is placed in a rough environment.

Considering that property damage accounts for nearly 98% of all homeowners insurance claims, do not underestimate the possibility of this happening in your home.

Get Proper Help

These are just some basic things that you need to know when it comes to understanding circuit breakers. Circuit breakers are there to help protect your home from electrical faults and even blown fuses.

You need to know that this helps control the flow of electricity in your home and the device is there for when you need to fix something related to this. Plus, there is typically a molded frame around your circuit breaker to protect it from possible damage.

Do you need professional help with these issues in Pittsburgh? Message us here to see how our team at South Hills Electric can help.