Breaker on the panel board is not a new thing to homeowners. It tends to happen because of heavy load on the current circuit. When the electricity reaches its state of unsafe zone, the circuit panel protects your house by turning off instantly. This action might cause your switch of the panel to come down and you may face an appliance shutting off all of a sudden. The problems in the breaker happen and there’s no way to fix it. All you can do is to replace it with a new set. Sometimes the problem could be because of the connection to an outlet while other times you can also find the fixtures to have an internal damage. A guide on resetting a broken circuit might help you at adverse times. If you can’t get what’s going on with your breakers, call an emergency electrician right away!

Process for resetting

There are two reasons why you would be changing your circuit breaker. One reason is when the breaker is not putting any power out. There are many ways in which you can test a breaker for power. Make sure the breaker is on and the meter is set to volts AC. you need to touch one lead to the neutral wire and the other one on the screw to the breaker. If you can see the number of volts, it means the breaker is putting power up. If the breaker is in the on position, and you have tested it later to be found as no voltage, it means the breaker has been damaged due to some reason. In this condition, you have got no option other than replacing the breaker.

The second reason which will compel you to replace the breaker is when the breaker tripping at a lower current than what it is rated for. So if you have a 20 amp breaker, they can run 16 amps continuously and it’s tripping at 5 amps after running for 10-15 minutes then you will have to replace the breaker.

A quick note on replacing this breaker, if you are not comfortable or you have no idea about what you are doing, it is always a better option to not do it. Call an electrician that will help you in solving your problem. It’s the job of either an expert or someone who has the knowledge of handling these things. If you have the confidence of doing it, make sure you turn the power off to the panel before you work on it. There’s no good reason to do it while the panel is still hot. On a sub panel, you can shut the power of that panel completely off with the breaker in the main panel.

In order to shut the main panel off, you have to keep in mind that the two wires that are feeding the main breaker are shut off. When everything below the main breaker will be dead , you can then work on it. If you are stuck somewhere, or you are a little bit afraid of handling these, you can always have the service of 24 hour electrician London who are expert in replacing breakers.

Another tip while you will be working in the panel, treat it as if it were still hot. Only touch what you need to touch and be absolutely careful while you will be performing the replacing task.

How to change the breaker

Make sure the panel is completely dead. In most breakers, you have to grab from the centre. Then you have to pull it to the outside of the panel and it will just simply come out. Once you have the breaker out of the panel, you can use a flat head screwdriver and loosen up the screw on the edge of the breaker and pull your wire out. Now remove all the breakers from the panel. You can now see the hooks and the bus bar piece. On the new piece of the breaker you can see the same notch and a little slot with the metal contact. So adjust the breaker as per the settings of the hook and the bar. Press it over the bar and it will lock it. The easiest thing to do before you actually put the breaker in, is to reinstall the wire while the breaker is out. This will enable you to have access to the wire. Make sure it is inserted into the little slot. Also make sure that the rubber insulation is not pinched by the clamp when you tighten the screw down because that breaker will get loose over time and it will create a lot of heat from a bad connection. Now that you already have the wire in the breaker, you can simply go on and reinstall the breaker.

Now that the new breaker is installed and the power is still off in the panel, it is the best time to put the cover back in. before you put the power back on to this panel, turn all the breakers off and then go ahead and hit your breakers on your main panel. After you have done that, start turning your circuits back on! All these tips are quite easy to understand when you will be replacing breakers but if you still believe that certain electrical works needed to be finished by an electrician then you must ask for Electric Works London  to get the job done for you!