What Is a Circuit Breaker Panel?
- In 1879, the famous American inventor Thomas Edison developed the world's first stable, long-lasting lightbulb. This invention paved the way for the electrification of consumer homes. According to the Tennessee Valley Authority, small community power stations that could provide electricity to several city blocks appeared in numerous cities as early as the 1880s. By the 1930s, most people in major U.S. cities had access to electric power, but only 10 percent of the rural population had electric power. The Rural Electric Administration, which was created by act of Congress in 1935, was instrumental in much of the country's rural population over the next several decades.
- Electric power utility companies run electricity through high power lines that are typically strung overhead, but which may be buried underground, depending on municipal codes. Electricity is usually delivered to individual homes through a single power line running from the main power line to the electric meter, which measures how much electric power is used. Power is then routed into the circuit breaker panel where the power is distributed to different electrical outlets in the home.
- Circuit breaker panels come in a variety of configurations and sizes. The panel may be mounted inside or outside the house. It may be mounted in combination with the electric meter, or it may be installed separately. All circuit breaker panels will have an input for receiving the incoming electrical power line, main circuit breakers, which can shut off the flow of electricity to the home, service wires that connect the main breakers to the secondary subpanels, circuit breakers that handle the flow of electricity through specific circuits in the home and outputs for electrical wiring circuits in the home.
- Circuit breaker panels house a number of individual circuit breakers. These individual circuit breakers are rated to handle a specific amount of electric power safely, based upon the anticipated needs of the specific circuits. Circuits that serve high power consuming devices such as electric ranges or clothes dryers typically require wiring and circuit breakers that can handle the additional load.
- Circuit breakers serve as a means of protecting the electrical wiring in the home from overloading and possibly causing a fire. When more power is drawn from a circuit than the circuit breaker is designed to handle, the breaker will trip, shutting off the flow of power to that circuit. This allows the homeowner the opportunity to examine the circuit to determine and eliminate the source of the overload. Circuit breakers can then typically be reset, restoring power to the circuit. Circuit breaker panels that are composed of numerous circuit breakers allow one breaker to trip while continuing to provide power to the remaining circuits.
