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What are Circuit Breakers?
Most homeowners who are used to having fuses in their electrical panels will ask what are circuit breakers when they want to have new wiring in their home. Circuit breakers are devices that will automatically break an electrical circuit in a home or building when there is too much electricity running through the circuit. They will also cause a break if an unintentional short circuit occurs. They do have a set load of electricity they can carry and therefore will shut down when the load exceeds this limit. This overloading occurs whenever the electric charge going through the wires is too much for them to carry. This causes the wires to become hot and without the breakers they could catch fire. Since the wires are in the walls, the fire could be raging before it is discovered. When the electricity takes a different path than what is intended, this causes a short circuit. The breakers detect this and will shut down the power to this outlet or switch. They break the circuit to only the outlet or switch that has become overloaded and do not shut off the power in all of the home or building. If you click the breaker back on in the electrical panel, it will start functioning properly again. Each circuit breaker has a switch and a moving conductive plate. This plate moves with the switch. When the switch is on, the plate moves so that it touches a stationary plate allowing electricity to run through it. There are two types of circuit breakers - electromagnetic and thermal. In an electromagnetic circuit the magnetism increases as the load increases. When the load limit is reached the magnetic pull is high enough to break the circuit. In the thermal circuit breaker, the heat from the wires cause the circuit to break.
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