Last updated on August 14th, 2022 at 01:28 pm
If you’ve had issues with electricity before, then it’s pretty understandable for you to be worried when one or two things go wrong.
Among these issues could be a tripping circuit breaker. But when just one out of the multiple breakers keeps tripping continually, you may wonder why.
When a single circuit breaker keeps tripping, it’s an indication that the circuit it protects is overloaded or that there’s an issue with the wiring. In other slightly rare cases, only one circuit breaker will trip if there’s a power surge or if there isn’t a proper grounding of the circuit.
Why Does My Circuit Breaker Keep Tripping In One Room?
As aforementioned, the main reasons a circuit breaker keeps tripping in a particular room are because the circuit is overloaded or that the wiring is faulty.
There’s a circuit panel containing multiple breakers that control different house areas in most houses.
While some electricians wire each one to control only certain things like lighting, heaters, air conditioning, and outlets, others give them more control range.
Thus, it’s not strange for you to see breakers responsible for regulating the flow of electricity to entire rooms in the house.
So, if you’re experiencing the issue of one breaker that controls an entire room keeping tripping, then you should consider the following reasons.
#1. An Overloaded Circuit
An overloaded circuit is perhaps the most prevalent cause of tripping circuits in every home.
Many homeowners often fail to define the limits to how much electricity a room can use at a specific time.
So, it’s not strange for you to use many appliances at once in a single room.
For example, there are three outlets in a particular room(which is entirely too much), and they are all connected to one circuit breaker alongside the lighting, ceiling fan, and a hardwired air conditioning unit.
If you’re heating water with an electric kettle in that room while the ceiling fan and lights are on, there’s already some strain on the breaker.
But if you use an iron on the same circuit, it will cause the breaker to overheat and trip off.
You may think this is impossible, but you might have done this multiple times during the rush hour.
While overloading a circuit once or twice may not cause the circuit breaker to trip immediately, over time, it eventually will.
#2. Faulty Wiring
Like overloaded circuits, faulty wiring is also a significant cause of a trippy circuit breaker.
In household wiring, it’s a basic rule that the live and neutral wires shouldn’t touch each other.
Even newbie electricians know this rule and try to avoid making such connections.
Well, sometimes it’s inevitable to have these situations in your home.
If the cables were nicked during wiring and the insulators were slightly exposed, the risks of a neutral and live wire touching each other will increase.
While it doesn’t happen immediately, especially when it’s a hidden connection in the walls, heat could expand these openings over time and expose the wires.
And when they touch each other, the circuit would get a hard short.
Immediately this happens, the breaker will trip. However, when the wires aren’t in contact temporarily, especially during cool periods when they contract, you’ll be able to reset the breaker.
But as soon as they get hot again, they will cause the breaker to trip off again.
#3. Improper Grounding
It’s not a rare phenomenon for electricians to make mistakes in critical areas of the house.
Sometimes, these mistakes can arise due to confusion in identifying the wires.
For example, if an amateur electrician finds it challenging to differentiate between the ground and hot wires, he may interchange them.
You may think that it doesn’t cause a severe issue, but it does. For example, if the live wire of a certain circuit is grounded, it will immediately cause the circuit to be shorted, which eventually causes the circuit breaker to trip off.
Turning off the circuit is the easiest way to stop this, but if the breaker git overheated and poorly burnt, you’re in for an unpleasant treat.
Another incident of improper grounding is when there is no ground wire at all. An excess charge will not leave the system when the circuit isn’t grounded.
In the long run, the heat generated from these extra charges would damage the circuit breaker causing it to trip.
This continual heat would reduce the circuit breaker’s ability to tolerate excess loads and excessive currents causing it to trip regularly.
#4. Power Surges
A power surge is also another culprit responsible for tripping circuit breakers. Power surges infuse circuits with excess voltages, too much for the circuit breakers.
Immediately a power surge happens, the circuit breaker will trip off. Sometimes, the power surge may damage the circuit breaker in the process and cause it to become weak.
As aforementioned, weak circuit breakers often lose their tolerance for slightly excess currents and equally ignorable overloads.
Thus they’ll trip more regularly than usual.
What To Do When Your Room’s Circuit Breaker Trips Often?
When your room’s circuit breaker trips too often, you should reduce the number of appliances you use in the room, call an electrician to check the wires and, ultimately, change the breaker.
As aforementioned, using many appliances in one room controlled by only one circuit breaker would cause it to trip.
So, the easiest way to curb this continuous cut in the current flow is to reduce the load on the circuit.
It would be best to switch heating devices such as electric irons and heaters to other circuits with much lesser loads on them.
Also, avoid putting on many devices at the same time.
Furthermore, you should call an electrician to check out the wires in the walls if you’ve noticed that it’s not a matter of excess load causing the breaker to trip.
The culprit, in this case, could either be exposed wires touching each other or wrong connections caused by a color misidentification.
As a final resort, you should replace the circuit breaker. However, because these loads cause the circuit breaker to overheat and melt, it will begin to malfunction and trip too often.
So, the best option is to change the device in this case.
What Are The Signs Of A Circuit Breaker Going Bad?
A circuit breaker can exhibit a variety of signs when it gets damaged. These may range from flickering lights to your extension cords burning out wires.
#1. Flickering Lights
Flickering lights are a common indicator of a faulty circuit breaker. If your lights flicker, it means the electricity supply to the bulbs isn’t constant, which is often the fault of the circuit breaker.
#2. Low Voltage In Your Room
If you notice that the power output from outlets in one particular room is lower than that of other rooms, it’s an indication that the circuit breaker is damaged.
It will only allow a limited amount of electricity to flow in the circuit in such a case.
#3. Melted Wires
Sometimes damaged circuit breakers find it hard to regulate the amount of electricity that passes through them.
Thus, they may let excess electricity slip through and damage your appliances’ wires. Luckily, because extension cords are usually fused, they are damaged rather than your appliances.
#4. Burning Smell From The Circuit Panel
Because circuit breakers get burnt before they become faulty, you will perceive the unmistakable smell of burnt electronics when one becomes defective.
Conclusion
When your circuit breaker continuously cuts off the electricity to one room after tripping, it’s an obvious indicator that something is wrong.
This abnormality could be traced to excess load on the circuit, improper wiring, a power surge, or Improper grounding.
Luckily, you can rectify these easily and fix them alone or with the help of your electrician.
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