What Is A Short In An Electrical Circuit? And What Can Occur In The Instance Of A Short?

"The one part of the circuit is touching another part and that causes the circuit breaker to trip.." 

- Gareth Kelly, Home Service Expert

 

Jim Klauck,  A.K.A. Check A Pro Joe asked electrical expert, Gareth Kelly from Dream Team Plumbing, Heating, Electrical & Cooling to join him on Check A Pro Radio Show today to answer this question: "What Is A Short and What Can Happen if Your Circuit has a Short?

Check out this episode of The Dream Team Plumbing, Heating, Electrical & Cooling Podcast to find out...

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Podcast Episode Transcript:

The one part of the circuit is touching another part and that causes the circuit breaker to trip. This is the check a pro radio show check a pro Joe has assembled a team of pre-qualified home service contractors to bring you the latest in services products and techniques now here's your host the man with a hard hat and tool belt check a pro Joe this question comes up quite a bit in terms of the electricity in your home what is a short or a short circuit so I've asked my friend Gareth Kelly he is an expert in this field he's from dream team air conditioning heating plumbing and electrical hey Gareth how are you today I'm doing good job thank you for having me on the show sure it's great to have you here so we hear this a lot a short or short circuit what does that especially me so short or short sort of beans there is a connection or something's touching in a circuit or a wire that should be touching together so we can have different types of shorts we can have the short from a life to a neutral which shouldn't happen or in neutral to the ground which shouldn't happen or live to the ground so it means that normally one part of the circuit is touching another part and that causes the circuit breaker to trip and sometimes this can happen by having the older wiring in the home where the insulation maybe has become exposed and decomposing also it's like sometimes it gets dry rot on it and the wire should I touch together sometimes it's caused by an installation for you know the guy installer could have put a stapple one too hard in a wire and that causes a short circuit or somebody damaged the wire and stepping on a wire or hanging something from a wire so there's multiple ways that that can cause it but that causes a surgical Brenner trip and not the circle breaker doesn't trump then you know sometimes that's a huge problem so you always want to make sure your circuit breaker trips if there's a short circuit well you know Gareth and I know you know this a big problem are rats and squirrels for some reason mice and rats especially like to chew on electrical wires and they could come to a quick death but that doesn't mean it's good for your system right and so that's another thing that can compromise a wire yeah so some of wires back in the day were manufactured in plants where they used um like peanut oil and stuff like that there to manufacture the wire so that causes the end they think they are safe to eat and yeah that definitely causes a problem in the attics and where you can get a rodents in there chewing the wire and that can turn out to be a fire hazard eventually you know so you always want to make sure that if you do get rodent or something in your attic that you have something out and check out the wiring make sure still see it make sure they didn't eat anything or touch anything absolutely sometimes the electrician will have to go into the basement of the attic to actually track it down to find out where the breach is and it's so important because Gareth is right if there is a wire that has been compromised it can cause a fire and other damage but in the short term you won't have power or consistent power and clean power to that circuit anymore so it's very important to get ahold of Gareth and his team it's very simple all of his contact information is located here in the description of this podcast hey Gareth thank you so much for joining me you're welcome to thank you check a pro is your local source for pre-qualified contractors stay tuned for more of the cheka pro radio show.