Modern electric circuits are fitted with a circuit breaker fuse system.
Trip switch fuse box.
All homeowners should know the location of their electrical panel or fuse box and the opening should be easily accessible and not blocked by shelving boxes or furniture.
When a circuit breaker regularly trips or a fuse repeatedly blows it is a sign that you are making excessive demands on the circuit and need to move some appliances and devices to other circuits.
That is why you have to switch something off before resetting the meter.
Older ones have fuse holders and when a fuse is blown it must be replaced or rewired.
Most of the time however broken or worn out safety switches will stop going off which is what they are supposed to do in the first place.
Whether you use single phase safety switches or three phase.
Hence the breaker or fuse is intended to trip or blow before the circuit wires can heat to a dangerous level.
If your fuse switch has tripped after you ve been using a lot of appliances in one room you ve likely overloaded the circuit.
That is when you will trip the fuse the main switch will go down and you will be left in the dark.
Occasionally a faulty safety switch may also cause tripping.
The advantage of having a modern fuse box is that you will not have to replace the fuse wire every time it blows.
Your fuse box or consumer unit will either have fuses or trip switches.
If a fault develops a switch is tripped and the circuit is broken.
Locating your fuse box.
If your fuse box trips it s a matter of flicking a fuse switch to reset it which is far more convenient.
This will contain trip switches or circuit breakers.
Fuse boxes operate similarly to breakers but require a different process to restore the circuit if a fuse blows once you have located the main circuit breaker box open the metal door and look for a bank of switches arranged in rows.
If each circuit breaker or fuse isn t already labeled take the time to identify each switch or fuse and the particular area it controls.