Why Does My Circuit Breaker Keep Tripping?

Electricity keeps the lights on, runs your air conditioning, and powers your electronics and appliances. If your lights go off, your first suspicion may be a power outage, but if only some of the lights aren't working in your home, it's likely a circuit breaker may have been tripped.

Circuit breakers shut off the electricity to a certain part of a power circuit when there's an overload, such as a power surge. Usually, all you have to do is reset the breaker, but if the same circuit breaker keeps tripping, it could be caused by:

• An overloaded circuit
• A short circuit
• A ground fault
• An arc fault
• A faulty circuit breaker

We'll take a deeper dive into each of these potential issues and help you determine what you can do to fix this issue once and for all.

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If your circuit breaker tripped, one of the most common reasons is that the circuit itself is overloaded. Each circuit can only handle a certain amount of power by design, and in general, the more that's plugged into the circuit, the higher the draw. Some devices and appliances, such as your refrigerator, take a significant amount of power. If these appliances aren't on their own circuit, it can cause an overload that trips the breaker.

An electrician can help you determine whether you have an overloaded circuit and provide a strategy for decreasing the load. Suggested steps could include adding a dedicated breaker for a high-draw appliance or changing where you have some smaller appliances plugged in.

Your house is wired so that electricity follows specific paths around it. When electricity goes where it isn’t supposed to, it can cause a short circuit. This happens when two wires that shouldn't be touching are in contact, which can be common in older homes where the insulation around the wiring has become worn and exposed. Mice can also chew through electrical wires, making them vulnerable to a short.

A short circuit is a serious issue because it indicates that electricity is going where it shouldn't be. In worst-case scenarios, a short circuit can cause a major electrical fire and should always be addressed and repaired as quickly as possible by a qualified electrician.

A ground fault is similar to a short circuit in that it can happen when wires touch inside your walls. However, in this case, it's a hot wire touching a ground wire (hence the name) instead of a hot wire touching a neutral wire. This causes a surge in electricity that is detected by the circuit breaker, which then trips. GFCI outlets can also trip due to a ground fault, which can shut off the power to the entire circuit.

When wires are damaged, or connections are loose, this can cause an arc, which is where electricity jumps across a small gap, such as between wires. Your circuit breaker is designed to detect this and trip to shut off the power to the circuit and avoid a fire.

If your circuit breaker keeps tripping and there doesn't seem to be any other apparent reason, such as those listed above, it's possible the breaker itself is faulty. Breakers can either be defective or wear out over time. The more times it trips, the more likely it is to keep tripping, as this weakens the breaker. This issue is a fairly easy fix that involves taking out the bad breaker and replacing it with a new one. If this fixes the tripping issue, you're good to go.

When your power isn't working, you need a reliable company you can trust to arrive quickly and fix the issue—for good. At Jon Wayne, we have over 200 trucks on the roads, which means we can respond right away. Plus, you can relax knowing that all work is backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee.