"The Power Station is Misbehaving". Introducing CIRCUIT BREAKERS

“The power station is messing around with the electric supply”.

I guess this, maybe was your statement an hour after a heavy and raging tempest. At that moment you had a gladsome and canty feeling, yet a sense of ill-boding and omen – an annoying dichotomy. You were so happy because at that juncture, you wanted to warm up yourself up with a hot cup of coffee made with your electric heater and then you realized that darkness is back and the electricity was cut off again. This repeated twice after then and with great annoyance, ignorance and maybe, inexperience, you yelled: “The power station is playing tricks with the electricity”.

If you are/were in this shoe, don’t be shamed after reading this article, because years ago, I was also in such, until I learnt something very simple. And I’m sure your scientific brains will grip it easily. When I was younger and still unexposed, it was a common occurrence and reaction among us in the family. Our exact statement was usually “NEPA has started playing with the light again”.

^{NEPA- now known as PHCN(Power Holding Company of Nigeria).}

This continued until a day in the university when we were exposed to the true cause of this annoyance.

We were always angry with the power holding company because we felt that after paying a huge bill, all we got from them were tricks, but instead, we were meant to thank the electrical engineers and above all, give credit to the descriptor of something called the circuit breaker, Thomas Edison and Hugo Stotz, the inventor of the DRP – Deutsches Reichspatentzz(a new miniature circuit breaker) in 1924 which is currently used till date. If not for this great pioneer of electricity, maybe all our home appliances will be faulty, fires will burn our homes and worst of all, we may still be in the ancient era.

So, What’s A Circuit Breaker and When does it Work.

The circuit breaker just as the name implies is a device that breaks or cuts the flow of current through a circuit either manually or automatically. Manually, it performs the job of a switch in controlling the electric system and automatically it acts as a fuse to break/cut off the circuit whenever current exceeds the rating of the circuit or climbs above a safe level.

Modern power system supplies huge electric power through distribution grids from power plants to workplaces, houses, etc. The reason is that large circuits and high consuming power equipment are connected to distributors from these different buildings. A circuit breaker box is the first receptor of electricity in well-built homes and offices. This is because, in any case of an electric fault or high-stress current through the circuit, it has to perform its function to prevent such current from damaging the equipment.

In this power distribution connection, a hot(live) wire is connected to the power plant while the neutral wire is connected to the ground from both ends of the circuit. With this, a potential can be created through the circuit whenever it is closed and A.C flows through.

The hot wire and neutral wire are never allowed to touch each other directly, but through a resistor- maybe, an appliance with resistance. If these two wires touch directly, for any reason, something called a short circuit (minimal or no resistance) is produced and a huge amount of charge flows through the circuit and consequently, overheat the wires and cause a fire.

This was maybe what happened or almost happened during the storm. The two wires at a point touched or even fused , and when power was restored an hour later, excess charges flowed through to your home. Though, luckily for you, there in your home was a circuit breaker box to cut off the flow of current to avoid damage, which you were never aware of.

Storms aren’t the only possible cause(not every time) of short circuits. Another possible cause, especially when your house wiring passes through the ceiling, are savage rodents which may eat up the insulation of the wire and eventually run over it and cause them to touch directly or a driven nail through the wall punctures and joins the two wires.

Short circuits are not the only circuit breakers triggers. The circuit breaker can also sense when a circuit is overloaded, that is, it carries current greater than what it is designed for. For example, plugging a pressing iron or a water heater to a socket designed for a charger or something with a lower power rating. Overloading a Circuit still, can cause overheating and consequently burst into flames. It is like forcing a drum of water into the stomach of a man and since he’s not a camel, his stomach bursts open.

The ratings of circuit breakers, plugs, appliances etc. are written on the in ampere, watts, horsepower, on their body etc. To avoid overloading, you must learn to calculate power consumption of the appliances to know when the limit is exceeded. The formula below is usually used]

Watts = Amperes × volts

The voltage supplied and distributed through transformers is usually constant, for different locations(houses, office, industries, etc.) and different countries, depending on the amount of power they consume.

Recall that before your burst into madness, the light bulb flashed repeatedly for two times. The reason is that, unlike fuses, circuit breakers are designed to automatically reconnect after a short period of time. After the first cut off, of the circuit, the system was meant to come to its normal working condition, that is for the current fault to quench, within the set time of the circuit breaker. Once the time elapses, it reconnects again and in some instances, it still senses the fault and disconnects again. This can repeat itself for a maximum set amount of time(example.. Three, four) before the fault is extinguished, if not it cuts off permanently and then you need an electrician to fix the problem.

CONCLUSION

Basically, circuit breakers are created to to protect electric systems from harmful electricity, almost like the fuse, but with a timing mechanism. They are usually triggered when they sense short circuit faults and circuit overload.

REFERENCES

• Electrical Circuit Breaker | Operation and Types of Circuit Breaker

• How Circuit Breakers Work
  BY TOM HARRIS

• How Circuit Breakers Work

FURTHER READING

• Circuit breaker

• CLOSED, OPEN AND SHORT CIRCUIT By Cathleen Shamieh

• Preventing Electrical Overloads

Note: Images used in this article are CC0 licensed and were properly sourced. Those credited to @synick are originals.

Thanks for reading. All additions and questions, should be dropped below as a comment.

^{Contribute STEM content using the #steemstem tag and #stemng tag (for Nigerians only) | Support steemstem authors | Join our curation trail | Visit our Discord community | Delegate SP to steemstem}

Convenient Delegation Links:

50 SP | 100SP | 500SP | 1,000SP | 5,000SP | 10,000SP | 50,000SP

I AM SYNICK