Replacing a Circuit Breaker

Circuit breakers have one purpose and one purpose only. That is to interrupt electrical currents in your home when there is a sudden surge in the electrical lines. This safety feature is necessary to help protect your wiring, and therefore the costly electrical equipment in your home, like your television or computer.

One thing that someone needs to keep in mind though when you are working with any type of electrical gizmo—this is electricity that you are going to be dealing with. Electricity can cause severe injury, and even death if not handled properly, luckily you now know the proper way to change a circuit breaker, so you can avoid that problem.

Procedural Steps:

1. Determine whether or not the circuit breaker is actually tripped. To do this, take a look at the breaker box, which is usually located in a basement, laundry room, or utility room. In this box you should be able to find a main on/off power switch. Turn off the power if you can. Then you press the tripped breaker towards the off to reset the system, then over to the on position. If it trips again immediately, then you have a bad circuit breaker that needs to be replaced.
2. Buy your new circuit breaker from any hardware or home improvement store and then take it home to your breaker box. After you have gotten home, remove the cover from the breaker box by unscrewing the face plate. When you have done this, make sure that you pay close attention to the two wires that are feeding into the breaker, and where they are at. If you don't remember this, then you may end up reconnecting them in the wrong position, which would not be good at all.
3. Loosen the screws holding down the white wire first, but only enough to get the wire out. Put a wire nut on the end of the wire, and bend it out of your way. Then repeat this with the other, colored wire.
4. Remove the old, bad circuit breaker and replace it with the new one.
5. Return the wires back into their previous positions, in the reverse order that you removed them. Colored one first, then the white.
6. Replace the screws that were holding the wires, then the covering plate. Make sure that the panel's power is turned back on, if it had been turned off. Try to turn the breaker on, if it trips again, even after you replaced the circuit, then you need to immediately call an electrician. You might have a short in your system, which could be dangerous, and cause a fire or other type of damage to your home.