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Why Does My Furnace Keep Tripping My Circuit Breaker?

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Every once in a great while, it is common for your furnace to trip your circuit breaker. When this happens on a rare occasion, it is usually caused by a power surge or spike in energy during a thunderstorm. If your furnace trips your breaker and it happens only once, you are fine. This issue is when your circuits keep getting triggered, and you have to reset them. If this situation describes what you are going through, it is time to call a professional because something is wrong with your furnace.

The most common reasons your furnace trips your breaker.

It is important to remember that your circuit breaker is a safety protocol. It is designed to help prevent electrical fires by shutting off the power to lines with a surge of electrical current. Each wire is designed to handle a certain amp level, and if that level is surpassed, they begin to have a risk of melting, overheating, or even igniting.

  1. Your furnace needs to be fixed. Every heating unit is designed to operate at a certain level and pull several currents to function correctly. If your furnace can operate within its designed parameters, it must work harder and use more electricity. If you are running your furnace in your home or business and it quickly shuts off after running for only a short time, it is usually because your heating unit is overworked. Issues that will commonly cause this problem like this are dirty filters, closed or blocked vents, restricted air ducts, or a malfunctioning part of the furnace.
  2. An overloaded or shared circuit. Your heating unit should be placed on its’ own circuit. However, older homes in the Salt Lake Valley, particularly in older areas like Sugarhouse or The Avenue, were not permanently wired this way. You may notice that your circuit triggers when you are running your furnace while at the same time using too much power in the rest of your house. An example of this could be running several appliances at the same time. There are ways to fix this problem; it is best to call a heating company near you to resolve the issue.
  3. Your furnace is having a short circuit or grounding error in your furnace. When this happens, we again see a situation where your furnace immediately starts up but trips the breaker and shuts off within minutes. There are two different situations that we must consider. This first is a short circuit. This occurs when a bare wire comes in contact with a neutral wire. The second situation is a ground fault. This happens when a bare wire is connected to a grounded wire or another part of the grounded unit. These situations can occur when a part malfunctions, a repair has been done incorrectly, or a rodent has been chewing on the wires.
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