Loose and cut off wires can become hot enough to start fires or can create serious shock hazards because the breaker doesn’t always trip and shut off the power.
A circuit breaker can trip or fuse due to nothing more than a loose wire. This can happen even if the wire is still connected to an outlet but the outlet’s terminal screw isn’t tightened enough.
It can trip the circuit’s breaker, if the heat from a loose connection is great enough or sustained long enough. So if this circumstances is happen then there is a danger of a Loose Connection.
Wires that are tight to the terminal make good electrical contact that the electricity can pass through with minimal resistance. But if the workstation is not tight, and the wire is not compressed against the terminal’s metal contact, there is greater resistance. And resistant creates heat. The looser the connection, the greater the heat. So the tightening the terminal solved the problem.
Breakers Don’t Always Catch Bad Connections
A loose wiring connection may or may not trip a standard circuit breaker. This is one reason why new homes today must have special breakers called arch-fault circuit-interrupters, or AFCIs. These are designed to detect the most common types of arc faults in home wiring and shut off the power.
How to Locate a Tripped Circuit Breaker
The circuit breakers in your home are generally located in a gray metal main circuit breaker box, usually located in a utility area, such as a basement, laundry room, garage, or utility closet.
In a finished room, the main breaker box may be contained in a wall cabinet.
Once you have located the main circuit breaker box, open the metal door and look for a bank of switches arranged in rows. There may be different types of circuit breakers in the box, but all operate the same way, and all are reset in exactly the same fashion.
If you do not have a main circuit breaker box, your home’s electrical service is probably older and the circuits may be controlled and protected by fuses.
Fuse boxes operate similarly to breakers but require a different process to restore the circuit if a fuse “blows.”
When to Call an Expert
Call an expert immediately if you experience regular circuit outages, detect a burning smell, or notice signs of deterioration—such as scorching, rusting, or corroding around your circuit breaker or main circuit breaker box. Ignoring electrical failure can result in fires and other home-threatening problems.