The circuit breaker is a necessary equipment in today’s world, as well as one of the most critical safety systems in your home. When there is too much electricity flowing through a building’s electrical wiring, these modest gadgets shut the power until someone can rectify the problem. Household power would be impractical without circuit breakers (or, alternatively, fuses) due to the risk of fires and other mayhem caused by simple wiring issues and equipment failures.
How Circuit Breaker Works?
This article will explain how circuit breakers and fuses monitor electrical current and shut off power when current levels become too high. The circuit breaker, as we’ll see, is an astonishingly simple solution to a potentially fatal problem.
The power distribution system transports power from a power plant to your home. Inside your home, the electric charge travels through a huge circuit that is made up of several smaller circuits. The hot wire connects one end of the circuit to the power plant. The other end, known as the neutral wire, connects to ground. There is a voltage across the circuit because the hot wire links to a high energy source and the neutral wire connects to an electrically neutral source (the ground). Charge travels whenever the circuit is closed. Because the current frequently changes direction, it is referred to as alternating current.
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In building wiring, the hot and neutral wires never come into direct contact. The current flowing through the circuit always goes via an item that serves as a resistor. As a result, the electrical resistance in appliances restricts the amount of charge that can pass across a circuit (with a constant voltage and a constant resistance, the current must also be constant). For safety reasons, appliances are designed to keep current at a low level. Too much current running through a circuit at one time would overheat the appliance’s and the building’s wiring, perhaps sparking a fire.
Most of the time, this keeps the electrical system working smoothly. However, something will occasionally link the hot wire directly to the neutral wire or something else leading to ground. A fan motor, for example, could overheat and melt, fusing the hot and neutral wires together. Or someone could accidently drive a nail into the wall, puncturing one of the electricity cables. Because there is no resistance in the circuit when the hot wire is connected straight to ground, the voltage forces a massive quantity of charge through the wire. If this pattern persists, the wires may overheat and catch fire.
The circuit breaker’s job is to switch the circuit off when the current exceeds a safe level. Contact us if you need a professional wireman.
