Circuit Breakers for Dummy Homeowners

circuit breaker box

When it comes to freelance writers pumping out so-called information in their never-ending search for pennies of residual income, some subjects are more likely to raise the collective ire of our staff than others. When one demonstrates ignorance of cosmetology or reality TV, that's (marginally) more acceptable than when one displays profound ignorance of something that might be dangerous – like moray eels or failing brakes... or like "Addressing Tripped Circuit Breakers,"¹ which is why Elizabeth McGrath and her article at TheSpruce.com caught our eye...

See, we don't have any particular problem with knowledgeable people writing about these topics, which seems to be the (present) norm at TheSpruce, but when McGrath chose an image of a power strip to illustrate an article about circuit breakers, we suspected she was tossing the bull... and Elizabeth proved it in her third sentence:

"Breakers trip when too much heat, or current, passes through your circuits."

That's a bastardization of the way circuit breakers actually work. Heat doesn't "[pass] through your circuits," current does; and that current generates heat as it passes through a bimetallic strip of a specific resistance. If the strip overheats from excessive current, it acts like a spring to snap the breaker to an off position.  According to McGrath, this can be caused by

1. "Overloading... Using too many appliances at once can cause your circuit to overload."
2. "Short Circuiting... a physical malfunction that is usually due to faulty or broken wiring. Have an electrician inspect your breaker box if it hasn’t been looked at in several years."

The staff electrician's corrections to McGrath's errors are,

1. It's not "too many appliances," it's too large a total wattage. That could be light bulbs, radios, computers, anything that draws electricity – not just appliances. Plus, many electrical devices have a higher start-up wattage than when operating normally.
2. Short circuits aren't likely to be in your breaker box, Elizabeth...

Next, McGrath defines a ground fault as "when electricity forms an unwanted path between a current and a grounded object." Ummm, Elizabeth? That's bullshit! And then there's this rubbish:

"An overloaded power strip will trip a breaker. This is especially common in areas with lower-voltage breakers like living rooms and bedrooms."

Low-voltage? really? Is it McGrath's contention that houses don't run 110 volts to the bedroom? Did she mean, maybe low-amperage? Again, bullshit – and if you want more of the same, check out this dumbassery:

"If you can, have items like refrigerators, dishwashers and ovens wired to separate circuits."

We suspect there's more misinformation and freelance dumbassery in there, but we suspect that you get the point. In case you didn't, well, we suggest that you look to people who know something about electricity to explain circuit breakers to you, not to some J-school grad who did such a lousy job of rewording an article that she didn't even use the word "amp" – just one reason we named her our Dumbass of the Day.

¹ The post has been deleted, but you can still see it using archive.org's Wayback machine. Its URL was   www.thespruce.com/addressing-tripped-circuit-breakers-4118964

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