The first step is to determine whether this is a problem with the breaker or the circuit. The most common cause of a breaker tripping is a short circuit. A short circuit occurs when there is too much current flowing through a wire, causing resistance and heat in the wire. This heat can eventually cause the wire to melt and break at the source of the current flow, creating a dead spot in your home where electricity no longer flows.

To check for shorts in your electrical system, turn off all of the breakers in your home and flip them back on one by one. If you hear a click or see sparks when flipping any of the switches, there’s likely a problem with that part of your system.

If there are no sparks, then you may have a loose connection somewhere in your home’s circuits. To check this possibility, turn off all of the breakers again and use an ohmmeter (multimeter) to measure resistance between two wires or outlets that are supposed to be connected together but aren’t touching. If there is no connection between these two points (0 ohms), it means there is an open circuit somewhere in your home’s wiring network.

Last modified: October 28, 2022