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1. Maybe you are using more than you think. Hair dryers really suck a lot of juice. 2. You may have a low-amp breaker with a lot of outlets wired to it. 3. It really depends on how many amps are being pulled vs how many amps the breaker can handle. What you need to do is identify every light and outlet that is wired to that breaker. Next time the breaker trips, leave it off and start figuring this out. Identify every light that is no longer working. Then carry a lamp (better yet, a night-light) around your house and try it in every outlet, identifying the ones that don't work. Before you flip the breaker switch, look at the switch. It should tell you how many amps it can handle before it trips. Overhead light fixture generally suck about 2-3 amps. A celing fan another 2-3 (a combination ceiling fan with light kit, around 5). Add up all the fixtures you identified as being on that circuit, and that's how many amps you are pulling, even when nothing is plugged into an outlet on that circuit. Now, a general rule in electrical wiring is that you're not supposed to have fixtures and outlets on the same circuit. I don't think there's any real danger in doing that, but it just kind of makes it easier to keep everything organized. So it may or may not be true in your house. So you may not have any fixtures at all on the circuit. If you don't, then ignore the lights and ceiling fans. Your load on that circuit is whatever appliances you have plugged in and running at the time. If you DO have fixtures on the circuit, then you can add the amps from those fixtures. Growing up, I lived in a house where the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room were all on the same circuit. That circuit must have been a huge number of amps to support all that. But nevertheless, if you turned on the hair dryer while the clothes dryer and bathroom vent were both on, it tripped the breaker every time. And the lights went out in all three rooms. Solutions? Well, if turning on your hair dryer is what causes the breaker to trip, you can try drying your hair when other things on that circuit are not operating. Or just plug your hair dryer in to an outlet that is not on that breaker. That's the easiest thing to do. You might also think about putting a bigger (more amps) breaker on that circuit in your breaker box (I suggest you don't do this yourself - hire an electrician). Another option is to change some of the outlets and/or fixtures to another circuit, one that doesnt have as much load on it. This will require some re-wiring, which, with a little bit of knowledge, you can do yourself. But if you are not comfortable with that, then again, hire an electrician. Overhead fixtures aren't so bad because the wiring is usually up in your attic. You just need to identify which wires are on which circuits and divert another circuit to include your fixtures. Also, you need to make sure that the old circuit is still continuous (if there was a fixture in between the breaker and an outlet, or between two outlets, and you took that fixture off the circuit, then you have to complete the circuit between the breaker and outlet, or between the two outlets, directly - make sense?). The thing that you have to keep in mind is that, while you are decreasing the load on one circuit, you are increasing the load on the other circuit, and you don't want to put so much on the other circuit that it starts to trip. Oh one warning. Anything that draw a LOT of amps, like a hair dryer or clothes dryer or chop saw, should never be plugged into any outlet that is on the same circuit with electronic devices (TVs, stereos, computers, DVD players). Even if it doesn't trip the breaker (a potential disaster for some electronics), the current change created by turning the high-amp appliance on and off can damage the sensitive components of such electronics. So-called "surge protectors" are not sufficient for protecting your electronic equipment from this - they only protect against minor fluctuations caused by slight changes in the current coming into your house.
Wiki User
∙ 16y ago
Wiki User
∙ 12y agoIf there is a current in excess of rated breaker current and breaker doesn't trip, either the breaker is faulty or the current was transient and very quick and the breaker didn't react.
Wiki User
∙ 9y agoNo, a circuit breaker if it is working correctly has only two states - on and off. Nothing in between.
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Function of dc battery at substation?
Batteries are essential components in a substation. They provide the (tripping) current by which protective relays can trip high-voltage circuit breakers in the event of a fault. This means that the circuit breakers can trip even if the substation itself has lost its ancillary AC power supply.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a gas circuit breaker?
The advantages of a circuit breaker are: they are smaller in size than fuses better versions may have electronic trips so they can adjust trip curve to suite circuit design easier for end user to reset (no touching live parts) no waiting to reset (as with fuses - spare must be found) no cost associated with resetting unlike cost of replacement fuses easier when ground fault protection is needed The disadvantages of a circuit breaker are: they are more expensive than fused switches when a circuit breaker trips, you lose all power (with fuses you only lose that phase) harder to coordinate fault selectivity harder and more costly to obtain high short circuit interrupting capacities
Why doesn't LC circuit exist?
even though a resistance is not connected in a circuit, it would practically have small resistance due to its components.so practically a LC circuit dosent exist..only a RLC circuit exists
What is difference between an ELCB and RCCB?
What is an ELCB?An Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker was the first name given to what is now called a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) . The original type of ELCB or GFCI was designed only to detect a current flowing in the safety "ground" or "earth" wire.If there is no fault anywhere in a circuit supplying single-phase alternating power to a unit such as an electrical appliance, machine or other equipment, the current flowing to the unit at any instant in the "hot" or "live" wire should exactly match the current flowing away from the unit in the neutral wire. Similarly, there should be no current flowing in the unit's safety "ground" or "earth" wire.It is a basic fact of electrical engineering design that all current flowing to an electrical appliance, machine or other equipment from the power generation station via its supply circuit's "hot" or "live" wire should only return to the power station via that same circuit's "neutral" wire.So, as a result of that basic fact, if any current isflowing in the ground wire, it must be caused by a fault condition and the supply of current to the circuit needs to be stopped urgently. Many years ago, before today's electronic RCDs or GFCIs were designed, much simpler electro-mechanical relays called Earth Leakage Circuit Breakers (ELCBs) were invented so that, if any such ground current exceeding just a few milliamps was detected, they would "trip" - meaning "operate" - to break the current supply to the circuits for which they were installed to protect.The original type of ELCB or GFCI did not check for any difference in current flowing in the live and neutral wires, which is another indication of a very serious fault condition - even if no current can be detected flowing in the ground wire - because the "missing current" may actually be flowing to ground via someone's body!When RCDs were invented, most manufacturers of GFCIs adopted the same technology because it offers so much more protection to users than the original GFCI could ever give. In the US and Canada such devices are still commonly known as "GFCIs" or "GFIs" even though they have the additional "residual current detector" functionality, whilst in Europe and elsewhere the more accurate name of "Residual Current Detector" or RCD has been widely adopted for general use instead of using the name of the much simpler GFCI device.What is an MCB? A Miniature Circuit Breaker. An MCB is a device designed to protect a circuit's wiring from the serious damage which would be caused if it has to carry a current which is too high for the diameter of its wires. Such a current could easily heat up the wires so much that their insulation melts. If that situation were allowed to develop further it would soon cause the wires in a cable to short out and to burn so hot that they could easily cause a house fire.Before circuit breakers were invented, simple wire fuses were used: the wire in the fuses was deliberately made much thinner than the wires in the circuits they were intended to protect. Thus, if a fault condition occured, as the current in the circuit grew higher and higher, a point would be reached at which the thin wire of the fuse would get so hot that it would melt - all safely contained within the body of the fuse - and thus break the flow of current in the circuit it was protecting. The problem with fuses is that - depending on their design, as some are faster-acting than others - it can take a significantly longer amount of time for them to operate compared with today's very-fast-acting circuit breakers. That fact means that, if a circuit overload current fault condition occurs, considerable damage can still occur both to the circuit wiring and/or to the unit it is supplying with power. Then, after the fault condition has been fixed, the melted or "blown" fuse wire in a rewireable type of fuse has to be replaced or - if it is a "disposable cartridge" fuse - the blown fuse cartridge has to be thrown away and replaced by a new one. A circuit breaker, if it is still in good condition, only needs to be reset.It is no joke to say if it is still in good condition...! One more fact needs to be mentioned: a significant design feature built into today's circuit breakers is their ability to "self-destruct on a crowbar fault ". A "crowbar fault" is a very serious overload condition, so bad that it would cause many thousands of amps to flow, just as if someone had thrown down a heavy metal crowbar tool onto power lines to connect both hot and neutral wires... Such a fault condition can only be stopped by what is the ultimate fail-safe function of all modern circuit breakers: by using electro-magnetic technology similar to that of a simple relay, they are designed to self-destruct at least as fast as - if not faster than - the fastest acting fuses!In brief, wherever electrical equipment - and the wiring which supplies it - need to be protected from overload current fault conditions then: a) if the physical space available allows circuit breakers to be installed, andb) if the higher initial costs of deploying circuit breakers can be affordedthen it is significantly better to deploy circuit breakers instead of fuses.For more information on all these topics see the answers to the Related Questions shown below.
Arc-fault circuit interrupter trouble shootting?
The test is, push the button, if the breaker trips, tested ok, if not,the breaker is bad,(rare) or if it does not reset, somewhere in the house, hot is connecting to neutral. Bad outlet or even light fixture. Arc-fault are used in bedrooms. Codes in most areas. These are in case the kids stick a fork into an outlet. Ground fault is used near water.
Function of dc battery at substation?
Batteries are essential components in a substation. They provide the (tripping) current by which protective relays can trip high-voltage circuit breakers in the event of a fault. This means that the circuit breakers can trip even if the substation itself has lost its ancillary AC power supply.
What is the function of Batteries in the substation?
a very helpful functionAnswerBatteries are essential components in a substation. They provide the (tripping) current by which protective relays can trip high-voltage circuit breakers in the event of a fault. This means that the circuit breakers can trip even if the substation itself has lost its ancillary AC power supply.
What is 'trip free' feature in circuit breakers?
It means that when the breaker is switched "ON" using the push button and simultaneously a fault occurs, the breaker will trip even if the push button is still being held in "ON" position.
Interchangeable circuit breakers for challenger electrical panel?
None! Distribution panel designed to use specific type of circuit breakers. It's a NEC violation to install different type of breaker even it fits perfectly.
What might cause low voltage at one outlet on a multioutlet circuit?
its an overload on the circuit breaker the 3 outlets are on.. many times groups of outlets are on different circuit breakers.. even though they are in the same room... especially if some are on a gfi outlet
Does an electric circuit have a beaker?
Electric circuit need a main circuit breaker that can protect the whole circuit from short circuit even in ground fault. It's safer if you use breaker with built in ground protection.
What term is used to describe two computers acting as if there is a dedicated circuit between them even though there is not?
Virtual Circuit
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a gas circuit breaker?
The advantages of a circuit breaker are: they are smaller in size than fuses better versions may have electronic trips so they can adjust trip curve to suite circuit design easier for end user to reset (no touching live parts) no waiting to reset (as with fuses - spare must be found) no cost associated with resetting unlike cost of replacement fuses easier when ground fault protection is needed The disadvantages of a circuit breaker are: they are more expensive than fused switches when a circuit breaker trips, you lose all power (with fuses you only lose that phase) harder to coordinate fault selectivity harder and more costly to obtain high short circuit interrupting capacities
What will happen to the appliance if there is a short circuit to the cable supplying it?
Electricity takes the path of least resistance - That is to say most of the electricity takes the path of least resistance.In this case the short circuit will have an incredibly low resistance, and the vast majority of the electricity will bypass your appliance, causing no damage (to the appliance) at all. However where the short circuit occurs on the cable one will find burning marks and heat damage, perhaps even part of the metal has been vaporised leaving a hole or melting mark on the metal of the wire itself.There is also a very good chance the fuse will break inside the plug top and that circuit breakers* will trip in your board.*Breakers because the fault current may be large enough in a short circuit to trip your main circuit breaker and not just the breaker for the circuit the appliance is plugged into, this however is rare.
Why some father think that his children will understand the reason for having an affair even though his kids knows he is at fault?
He doesn't believe it is all his fault. Typically it is not all his fault, there's always two sides, though the action is the worst of the faults.
Can you get money from the opther persons car insurance for your injuries even though the accident was your fault?
No. If the accident was your fault, you can not get money from the other person's car insurance.
Does a 10amp 240v appliance draw 5 amps per phase?
Answer for USA, Canada and countries running a 60 Hz supply service.No. Even though 240 volts uses two breakers it is still classed as a single phase service. Kirchhoff's law states that current entering a circuit is equal to current leaving the circuit. Since the appliance draws 10 amps, the whole circuit has 10 amps flowing through it.
