How Circuit Breakers Work

The circuit breaker is an absolutely essential device in the modern world, and one of the most important
safety mechanisms in your home. Whenever electrical wiring in a building has too much current flowing
through it, these simple machines cut the power until somebody can fix the problem. Without circuit
breakers (or the alternative, fuses), household electricity would be impractical because of the potential
for fires and other mayhem resulting from simple wiring problems and equipment failures.

In this article, we'll find out how circuit breakers and fuses monitor electrical current and how they cut
off the power when current levels get too high. As we'll see, the circuit breaker is an incredibly simple
solution to a potentially deadly problem.

To understand circuit breakers, it helps to know how household electricity works.

Electricity is defined by three major attributes:

• Voltage

• Current

• Resistance

Voltage is the "pressure" that makes an electric charge move. Current is the charge's "flow" -- the rate
at which the charge moves through the conductor, measured at any particular point. The conductor
offers a certain amount of resistance to this flow, which varies depending on the conductor's
composition and size.
Voltage, current and resistance are all interrelated -- you can't change one without changing another.
Current is equal to voltage divided by resistance (commonly written as I = v / r). This makes intuitive
sense: If you increase the pressure working on electric charge or decrease the resistance, more charge
will flow. If you decrease pressure or increase resistance, less charge will flow. To learn more, check
out How Electricity Works.

Circuit Breaker: At Work in Your Home

The power distribution grid delivers electricity from a power plant to your house. Inside your house, the
electric charge moves in a large circuit, which is composed of many smaller circuits. One end of the
circuit, the hot wire, leads to the power plant. The other end, called the neutral wire, leads to ground.
Because the hot wire connects to a high energy source, and the neutral wire connects to an electrically
neutral source (the earth), there is a voltage across the circuit -- charge moves whenever the circuit is
closed. The current is said to be alternating current, because it rapidly changes direction.

The power distribution grid delivers electricity at a consistent voltage (120 and 240 volts in the United
States), but resistance (and therefore current) varies in a house. All of the different light bulbs and
electrical appliances offer a certain amount of resistance, also described as the load. This resistance is
what makes the appliance work. A light bulb, for example, has a filament inside that is very resistant to
flowing charge. The charge has to work hard to move along, which heats up the filament, causing it to
glow.

In building wiring, the hot wire and the neutral wire never touch directly. The charge running through
the circuit always passes through an appliance, which acts as a resistor. In this way, the electrical
resistance in appliances limits how much charge can flow through a circuit (with a constant voltage and
a constant resistance, the current must also be constant). Appliances are designed to keep current at a
relatively low level for safety purposes. Too much charge flowing through a circuit at a particular time
would heat the appliance's wires and the building's wiring to unsafe levels, possibly causing a fire.

This keeps the electrical system running smoothly most of the time. But occasionally, something will
connect the hot wire directly to the neutral wire or something else leading to ground. For example, a fan
motor might overheat and melt, fusing the hot and neutral wires together. Or someone might drive a
nail into the wall, accidentally puncturing one of the power lines. When the hot wire is connected
directly to ground, there is minimal resistance in the circuit, so the voltage pushes a huge amount of
charge through the wire. If this continues, the wires can overheat and start a fire.

The circuit breakers job is to cut off the circuit whenever the current jumps above a safe level. In the
following sections, we'll find out how it does this.
Breaker Design: Basic

The simplest circuit protection device is the fuse. A fuse is just a thin wire, enclosed in a casing, that
plugs into the circuit. When a circuit is closed, all charge flows through the fuse wire -- the fuse
experiences the same current as any other point along the circuit. The fuse is designed to
disintegrate when it heats up above a certain level -- if the current climbs too high, it burns up the wire.
Destroying the fuse opens the circuit before the excess current can damage the building wiring.

The problem with fuses is they only work once. Every time you blow a fuse, you have to replace it with a
new one. A circuit breaker does the same thing as a fuse -- it opens a circuit as soon as current climbs to
unsafe levels -- but you can use it over and over again.

The basic circuit breaker consists of a simple switch, connected to either a bimetallic strip or an
electromagnet. The diagram below shows a typical electromagnet design.

The hot wire in the circuit connects to the two ends of the switch. When the switch is flipped to the on
position, electricity can flow from the bottom terminal, through the electromagnet, up to the moving
contact, across to the stationary contact and out to the upper terminal.

The electricity magnetizes the electromagnet. Increasing current boosts the electromagnet's magnetic
force, and decreasing current lowers the magnetism. When the current jumps to unsafe levels, the
electromagnet is strong enough to pull down a metal lever connected to the switch linkage. The entire
linkage shifts, tilting the moving contact away from the stationary contact to break the circuit. The
electricity shuts off.

Click on the circuit breaker to release the switch.

A bimetallic strip design works on the same principle, except that instead of energizing an
electromagnet, the high current bends a thin strip to move the linkage. Some circuit breakers use
an explosive charge to throw the switch. When current rises above a certain level, it ignites explosive
material, which drives a piston to open the switch.

Breaker Design: Advanced

More advanced circuit breakers use electronic components to monitor current levels rather than simple
electrical devices. These elements are a lot more precise, and they shut down the circuit more quickly,
but they are also a lot more expensive. For this reason, most houses still use conventional electric circuit
breakers.

One of the newer circuit breaker devices is the ground fault circuit interrupter, or GFCI. These
sophisticated breakers are designed to protect people from electrical shock, rather than prevent
damage to a building's wiring. The GFCI constantly monitors the current in a circuit's neutral wire and
hot wire. When everything is working correctly, the current in both wires should be exactly the same. As
soon as the hot wire connects directly to ground (if somebody accidentally touches the hot wire, for
example), the current level surges in the hot wire, but not in the neutral wire. The GFCI breaks the
circuit as soon as this happens, preventing electrocution. Since it doesn't have to wait for current to
climb to unsafe levels, the GFCI reacts much more quickly than a conventional breaker.

All the wiring in a house runs through a central circuit breaker panel (or fuse box panel), usually in the
basement or a closet. A typical central panel includes about a dozen circuit breaker switches leading to
various circuits in the house. One circuit might include all of the outlets in the living room, and another
might include all of the downstairs lighting. Larger appliances, such as a central air conditioning system
or a refrigerator, are typically on their own circuit.