circuit breaker

What: "A circuit breaker is like a traffic signal that stays green when traffic is flowing smoothly and turns red, or trips when it isn't. A circuit breaker mechanically "breaks" the flow of electricity through an electrical circuit."

Writer: Not Stated

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Date: Oct 4 2013 4:51 PM

What: "A mechanical (or "miniature") circuit breaker is like a resettable fuse. It protects a circuit from currents that are too high."

Writer: Not Stated

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Date: Oct 4 2013 4:54 PM

What: "Any more than that being drawn, and the breaker (should) will trip. In theory, you could have circuits totalling 2,000 amps in that panel, but you couldn't be drawing that all at once. It's kind of like a bank--they have a certain amount of cash reserves on hand, but it's only a small percentage of the total on deposit. They're fine as long as not everyone takes everything out of their accounts all at once in cash. Each circuit breaker is like an account--it could be drawn on up to it's max rating, but not all of them could be at the same time. You could run 10 20-amp circuits at near full capacity at once, but if you start up the 11th, you'd trip the main."

Writer: Jason Roehl

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Date: Oct 4 2013 4:58 PM

What: "It's fair to think of an electrical socket as being similar to a checkbook. That circuit breaker is like a checking account that is capable of providing a certain amount of power to all the plugs on that circuit (and there may well be more than one!) When you plug something into it, you're drawing on that circuit breaker just like you'd draw money out of the checking account. Putting a power strip on an outlet is like ordering more checks - you can plug more different devices in but you don't get any more total current out of it, just like you can be overdrawn and still have checks left. Popping a circuit breaker is like bouncing that electrical check - you overloaded it."

Writer: VA_Cruiser

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Date: Oct 4 2013 5:06 PM