This past weekend, our neighbor had a problem with one of the circuit breakers in his house. While I\u2019m no electrical wizard and certainly haven\u2019t kept up with the electrical codes (that change more often than they did in the past.) I told him I\u2019d take a look. The problem wasn\u2019t all that complicated and we just changed the breaker.<\/p>\n
But \u2014 this got me to thinking. Circuit breakers, like everything else have changed (and become more complicated) over the years. The first electrical distribution panel I ever remember looking at was in my parents house. It literally had two fuses \u2014 not circuit breakers \u2014 fuses. The entire house was essentially one circuit. If a fuse blew, electricity in the entire house went out. My grandparents lived in a somewhat more modern house\u2026 They had those two \u201cmain\u201d fuses, but they also had couple of rows of fuses below those \u2014 there were actually separate circuits that were fused. So a fuse could blow and not necessarily interrupt electricity to the entire house. All these fuses screwed in like a light bulb \u2014 in fact, I\u2019m not sure, but the base of light bulbs and the base of the fuses may have been the same size.<\/p>\n
A number of years later, my parents bought a much newer house and the electrical distribution panel didn\u2019t have fuses \u2014 it had circuit breakers! As I said, I\u2019m not an electrician and these circuit breakers are pretty much what I remember for a lot of years\u2026 most probably until we moved here to West Virginia and moved into a new house.<\/p>\n
The circuit breakers I remember until recently were either single-pole breakers or double-pole breakers. There probably were more differences, but here\u2019s basically what\u2019s different about the two:
\nSingle-pole breakers \u2014 protect the \u201chot\u201d wire of a circuit, supply a 120 volt circuit and usually protect circuits from 15 to 30 amps.
\nDouble-pole breakers take up two slots in a breaker panel and protect two \u201chot\u201d wires, they usually consist of two single-pole breakers with one handle and a shared trip mechanism, and can protect circuits from 15 to about 200 amps. These are usually used for large appliances like clothes dryers and water heaters.<\/p>\n
When we moved to our current house, some of the circuits in the bathrooms and kitchen included outlets known as GFI (Ground Fault Interrupter) outlets \u2014 the circuit breakers for these circuits were single-pole breakers.
\nBut looking in our breaker panels, I discovered a couple of circuit breakers I wasn\u2019t familiar with \u2014 one was a GFI breaker, that I assumed did pretty much what the GFI outlets did, but there were other breakers called AFI (Arc Fault Interrupters.)<\/p>\n
Doing a little checking, I discovered that the GFI does, in fact, do pretty much what the GFI outlets do \u2014 they cut power when they are tripped by an overload, a short circuit or a line-to-ground fault.
\nArc Fault Interrupters (AFI) breakers were new to me \u2014 they\u2019re designed to protect against an unintentional electrical discharge in electrical wiring that could cause a fire. These \u201carcs\u201d are usually caused due to worn or damaged electrical cords\u2026 regular breakers don\u2019t always trip in these instances because they are designed to respond to a sustained amount of heat \u2014 not a quick surge.<\/p>\n
So \u2014 you probably didn\u2019t expect to learn so much when you started this \u2014 but I thought it was interesting, and important, so I pass it along for what it\u2019s worth. And besides, you don\u2019t want to be like me and become road-kill on the technological highway\u2026..
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n
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This past weekend, our neighbor had a problem with one of the circuit breakers in his house. While I\u2019m no electrical wizard and certainly haven\u2019t kept up with the electrical codes (that change more often than they did in the … Continue reading