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How do fuses and circuit breakers protect your home against fires?
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
because wires can get really hot and start a fire
Micheal Hoeger
Wiki User
∙ 9y agoFuses play an important role during overcurrent. When there is excess flow of current, the fuse wire melts and prevents the flow of current from reaching the device and causing fire. They are used to allow normal current to pass through, but prevent overload and short circuit condition.
Wiki User
∙ 14y agoBecause everything is set around heat. Say you have a 20 amp breaker or fuse, and you have your 12awg wire, if you draw to much power through it, it gets too hot.
The whole purpose of a breaker or fuse is to stop the circuit from overheating and causing a fire.
The fuse has a filament inside of it that can take so much heat, when the max heat is reached, the filament breaks so it can not get hotter then the lines can handle.
A breaker has a mental band that bends when it gets to hot, tripping the breaker.
Wiki User
∙ 10y agoA fuse is a circuit connection that will be destroyed by excessive current flow, creating an open circuit, to protect electrical devices from receiving too high a current. It is designed to be the "weakest link" in the circuit, which will hopefully fail before the other components can be damaged. The simplest fuses contain thin wire strips that will melt when heated by excessive current flow.
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoA fuse is a safety device to prevent electrical overloads (or spikes) from damaging electric wiring or equipment. It is designed to "burn out" (melt, create an open circuit) because its element has a low melting point. It therefore only allows a certain amount of current (amperage) to flow through the circuit.
Wiki User
∙ 15y agoBurnt out electronic components or wiring. <><><> A fuse will not protect against arcing that can occur in a loose connection.
Wiki User
∙ 14y agoIf the electricity flow through the fuse becomes too large the fuse will "blow" when this happens the metal strip that completes the circuit is gone, not allowing electricity to pass through
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Why are fuse boxes or curcuit breakers good safety features in houses?
They can avert electrical fires in case of fuse boxes and many modern circuit breakers can stop people from being seriously electrocuted
What occurs when a pathway through which electrical charges can move forms suddenly?
If that pathway is to ground, it is called a short circuit. It should blow fuses or circuit breakers but can cause fires if protective devices are not functioning right.
Can circuit breakers help to prevent building fires?
Breakers limit the current on the conductor to a safe level, too many appliances plugged in. You trip a breaker, hopefully you then transfer load to another circuit. Breakers use two different methods to accomplish this, one uses a bimetallic strip and the current passes directly through, too high a current causes the strip to deflect. It acts on a mechanism much like the sear in a guns trigger, the deflection pulls the trigger causing a spring to open the contacts and turn off the circuit. Another type is thermal magnetic, current passing through the breaker causes a magnetic field to act on a coil tripping the breaker. When breakers are wired and work properly they prevent fires!Bending metal opens a switch
How do circuit breakers prevent electrical fires?
Breakers limit the current on the conductor to a safe level, too many appliances plugged in. You trip a breaker, hopefully you then transfer load to another circuit. Breakers use two different methods to accomplish this, one uses a bimetallic strip and the current passes directly through, too high a current causes the strip to deflect. It acts on a mechanism much like the sear in a guns trigger, the deflection pulls the trigger causing a spring to open the contacts and turn off the circuit. Another type is thermal magnetic, current passing through the breaker causes a magnetic field to act on a coil tripping the breaker. When breakers are wired and work properly they prevent fires!Bending metal opens a switch
Does surge protectors protect against electrical fires?
surge protector designed to protect electrical devices from voltage spike. A surge protector attempts to regulate the voltage supplied to an electric device by either blocking or by shorting to ground voltages above a safe threshold.
How do fuses circuit breakers protect your home against electrical fires?
because wires can get really hot and start a fire
How fuses and circuit breakers protect against electrocution and household fires?
Fuses and circuit breakers do not protect a person from electrocution. They are in the circuit to protect the feeder conductors from having over current applied to them. The only type of breaker that will protect you from getting a shock is a GFCI.The way that fuses and breakers stop household fires is by opening the fault current on the circuit before the fault temperature can rise high enough to ignite any surrounding combustible materials.
What devices do not protect you from electrical fires?
circuit breaker
How do fuses and circuits breekers help to protect us?
Fuses and Circuit Breakers act as a control mechanism to the flow of current in electrical circuits. A fault can develop in an electrical appliance without us noticing and this is where circuit breakers and fuses help in automatically disconnecting the faulty appliance from the power source. Most electrical faults resulting excess heat generation which in turn cause fires. Electrical shock can also be prevented by special types f circuit breakers called Earth Leakage Circuit breakers (ELCB). These breakers operate whenever there is an earth leakage protecting humans.
What device is used to protect buildings from electrical fires?
Circuit breaker or a fuse
Why are fuse boxes or curcuit breakers good safety features in houses?
They can avert electrical fires in case of fuse boxes and many modern circuit breakers can stop people from being seriously electrocuted
How do fuses and circuit breakers protect you home against electrical fires?
It must understand that, short circuit is the case when the electricity find a lower resistance path to travel through. It will result to large amount of electricity flow and with high current flow then it emitted heat and would be so hot that it start the fire. Preventing short circuit damage, it install the fuse or circuit breaker as the bottle neck. When too much of the current flow through then the circuit breaker stop the flow of current and prevent fire.
Can home circuits have safety devices called fuses and circuit breakers that close a circuit when too much current passes through?
The safety devices does not close, but opens the circuit. Homes in the United States must have circuit current protection in order to meet building code requirements. They can use fuses or the push-in circuit breakers. In order for amperage to flow through them, they must be closed, which provides a continuous flow of current from the source to the load. If too much amperage passes through, the fuse blows or the circuit breaker opens, creating an open circuit that stops the flow of electricity.
Why were smoke detectors invented?
To warn and protect people against fires.
What occurs when a pathway through which electrical charges can move forms suddenly?
If that pathway is to ground, it is called a short circuit. It should blow fuses or circuit breakers but can cause fires if protective devices are not functioning right.
Can circuit breakers help to prevent building fires?
Breakers limit the current on the conductor to a safe level, too many appliances plugged in. You trip a breaker, hopefully you then transfer load to another circuit. Breakers use two different methods to accomplish this, one uses a bimetallic strip and the current passes directly through, too high a current causes the strip to deflect. It acts on a mechanism much like the sear in a guns trigger, the deflection pulls the trigger causing a spring to open the contacts and turn off the circuit. Another type is thermal magnetic, current passing through the breaker causes a magnetic field to act on a coil tripping the breaker. When breakers are wired and work properly they prevent fires!Bending metal opens a switch
What are electric fuzes?
In most places fuzes have now been replaced by circuit breakers. They prevent circuits from becoming overloaded and starting fires. With modern circuit breakers, you just have to flip the switch to turn the electricity back on. Old fuses were like the base of a light bulb, and a filiment would burn out if it was overloaded. Back then, you had to replace a blown fuze with a new one to restore electricity.
