The Circuit Breaker Box: Your Home's Power Regulator

The circuit breaker box is one of the components of your home that you usually don't

handle unless there's something wrong or you're working on a big project. Perhaps you're adding a ceiling fan to your bedroom. That means you'll need to shut off the correct breaker. Maybe the lights are out, and you want to make sure it's a neighborhood problem, and not just one in your home. Once installed, your circuit breaker box is pretty easy to use and is extremely reliable. So how does your circuit breaker box work and how do you use it efficiently?

The primary purpose of your circuit breaker box is to regulate the flow of electricity into your home. Before fuses and breakers were used, an unexpected surge of power had the ability to send unchecked voltage into wiring and appliances that could not handle it. Bolts of lightning or other fluctuations could then cause a home fire. A circuit breaker prevents this overflow. Should too much voltage try to flow into your home's wiring, the breaker will "trip," breaking the connection. While fuses are still in use in many homes, they have their disadvantages. The biggest of which is the fact that they can only be used once, as the extreme current burns out the sensitive material in the fuse. A breaker, on the other hand, is made in such a way that a power surge causes a small interior switch to be thrown, preventing the surge from reaching your appliances. To reset a breaker, all you have to do is throw the switch back into position.

Circuit breaker boxes collect several breakers. There are main breakers that control the flow of power to an entire home, or large sections. Other breakers handle single rooms or even appliances. (After all, an air conditioner uses an awful lot more electricity than a bedroom outlet that is powering a single alarm clock.)

The most important thing to know about your circuit breakers is that you shouldn't install one or add or remove wiring unless you really know what you're doing. There's quite a bit of power running through the system, and mistakes can result in great injury. Consider leaving this work to licensed electricians and remember: safety first. (It's perfectly safe, of course, to simply flip the switches of a properly-installed circuit breaker box.) Bruce W. Maki, an editor at HammerZone, urges budding do-it-yourselfers to have a healthy fear of electricity. It can be all too easy to accidentally touch a metal tool to live wires, sending all of that voltage into your body.

Safe and simple circuit breaker use starts with proper labeling. Those stacked horizontal switches are very close to each other, and can seem even closer in the middle of a blackout. That's why it's critical to make sure that each switch is labeled according to the area of your home that it regulates. This is a task that can be easily overlooked because it's a bit of a hassle. It's one of those tasks, however, that you should do while everything is functional, so you don't have to fumble around in the dark. While it may be tempting to use that blue ballpoint pen in your kitchen's junk drawer, you should do the job right by using a black permanent marker with a nice, thick tip to clearly identify what each breaker in the box controls. Instead of writing on the sheet metal beside the breakers, you should use masking tape. Why? Masking tape can be easily removed or covered up, but if you're scribbling on the circuit breaker box, things could get a little confusing.

Most families have an escape plan they will use in case of fire. Consider adding a plan to enact in case of blackout. Be sure that those in the household who are old enough know where the circuit breaker box and which of the switches controls the main power to the house. Additionally, there should be at least one easily accessible flashlight on each floor of your home. It's even more critical to keep a flashlight near the circuit breaker box itself. You definitely don't want to have to try and figure out which switch is which in the dark!

The circuit breaker box is one of the easiest-to-use parts of your home. If you keep these safety and operational procedures in mind, you'll have no problem with your circuit breaker during an emergency or as you contemplate home repairs.

by:Terry Mickelson

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