Maintaining the Home:
Interior Maintenance
How to Reset a Circuit Breaker
What you need
- rubber mat
- flashlight
How to do it
- Disconnect all lamps and appliances on the tripped circuit.
- If the circuit breaker panel is in a damp area, be sure your hands are dry and you are standing on a rubber mat.
- Find the switch in the circuit breaker panel that is in the "off" or the middle position (Figure 1).
- If it is in the middle position, turn to "off."
- Flip the switch to "on" (Figure 2).
- Find out what caused the circuit to trip by plugging in appliances separately. If the circuit is OK with each appliance individually, you probably had too many things plugged in. If any one appliance causes the circuit to trip, get the appliance repaired or replaced.
Figure 1 |
Figure 2 |
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This material was adapted from publications produced by Iowa State University.
