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What Could Be Tripping My Circuit Breakers? · Lipps Electric Podcast

• 0:01
  A frustrating thing in our homes could be our electrical breaker tripping,
• 0:06
  and it really shouldn't be tripping all the time.
• 0:10
  It should trip only if there's a problem. It is a safety feature.
• 0:16
  I brought Kevin Lipps onto the program from Lips Electric to help me sort through
• 0:22
  all this. How are you doing, buddy?
• 0:23
  I am awesome. Thank you for having me again, Jim. Yeah, thanks for being the
• 0:27
  expert on the show today. Of course.
• 0:30
  So, as I said, an electrical breaker is designed to what we call trip,
• 0:38
  to break the circuit if there's a problem. It's like an emergency switch.
• 0:43
  And it does it automatically if it's designed correctly, if it's working correctly.
• 0:47
  Yes. What could be tripping the breaker?
• 0:50
  There's a handful of reasons why.
• 0:54
  The most common is having an overloaded circuit.
• 1:00
  That's where you're plugging in too many devices on that circuit,
• 1:03
  where it's going to exceed the capacity.
• 1:05
  We've spoken before where we talked about 15 ampere acres versus 20 ampere acres versus 30s.
• 1:10
  And then you get into two poles and that's a whole other topic.
• 1:13
  But if you are putting in a device, and a very common one, and the example I
• 1:19
  like to use a lot is talking about heaters. It could be a blow dryer.
• 1:22
  It could be a space heater that you use in the wintertime in your living room.
• 1:27
  And, or, you know, heaters outside, but the most common is really is that living room heater.
• 1:33
  So people will come in and a lot of times in your living room,
• 1:36
  those are, those are typically 15 amp circuits for the outlets.
• 1:40
  And you're using a device that can draw 20 amps. So that heat,
• 1:44
  now some of the newer ones don't draw as much, but majority of the,
• 1:47
  the, the heat will pull 20 amps and that can melt that outlet.
• 1:51
  And you don't want your outlet to melt. So what will happen before it starts
• 1:56
  to melt is it will trip the breaker.
• 1:58
  And that's kind of the purpose of it is to protect from an overloaded perspective.
• 2:02
  But you also have short circuits and ground faults, which I can get into the wiring.
• 2:08
  But those are the typical reasons for tripping breakers.
• 2:13
  Yeah. We've spoken about the problem with a melting outlet or wire.
• 2:18
  That's a common cause of house fires and we don't need that.
• 2:23
  It's so important to have a.
• 2:27
  An electrical system, all the circuits in your home to be operating correctly.
• 2:33
  And it's so easy to make a mistake because it's possible if you as the homeowner
• 2:39
  decide to change a breaker,
• 2:42
  maybe it's tripping a lot and it says 15 on it and you decide to go to the store,
• 2:48
  find something that looks like it that says 20 and you're like, I'll try this.
• 2:51
  It's a bigger number yeah that's
• 2:55
  a no-no that might not work because the wire is not
• 2:57
  designed for that it's it's it's more dangerous
• 3:00
  yeah there there could be a problem that's the
• 3:03
  worst choice no absolutely absolutely we see it we see it you know and and what
• 3:09
  it what it does just so you know is is that will allow a larger current of power
• 3:16
  run through that smaller wire than design so it Yeah,
• 3:21
  the wire typically will probably hold it until connections.
• 3:24
  Well, every wire in your home is connected and has connected either to a device
• 3:30
  or wire connections made throughout the home and the boxes.
• 3:34
  And we've seen, you'll see it more common than you would like to hear, melting wire nuts.
• 3:41
  And if you put a bigger breaker on that wire, it will cause that.
• 3:45
  And now it's just a matter of time. So then you got to, um, pay attention if
• 3:50
  you, if you hear, if you smell anything or, or, you know, if you hear any,
• 3:54
  like it can get dangerous real quick. Yeah.
• 3:58
  Um, smell, you could actually see smoke. You can see, um, some black residue on an outlet.
• 4:06
  That's never good. No. It means something's up.
• 4:10
  Something may have been up. So I'd recommend unplugging it if you could actually
• 4:16
  switch that circuit off on the panel before LIPS comes out. That might be a
• 4:22
  good idea, too. Correct, yeah.
• 4:23
  If you can't figure out what circuit it's on, you'd be better off shutting off
• 4:28
  everything in the house and getting someone out. Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:33
  Kevin, as always, fantastic advice. I appreciate your expertise when it comes
• 4:38
  to the electrical systems in our home. Great. Thanks, Jim.