How to Fix A Short Circuit?

Short circuits are usually of two kinds - normal short circuit and ground fault short circuit. When a short circuit occurs, the devices turn off and the breaker trips. This happened at our home last month and we didn’t know how to fix a short circuit, so not wanting to take a chance, we called an electrician to sort this out. I can tell you what the professional explained to us.

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How Do You Fix a Short Circuit?

The electrician told us that before beginning to work on the problem, it’s important to ensure that the circuit is switched off in the breaker box. Then, he performed some steps on how to fix a short circuit in a house that I am mentioning below in brief.

1. First of all, he said it’s crucial to isolate the circuit, which means identifying the circuit which has the problem.

2. Then, turn off the circuit breaker, if you haven’t already done so, to ensure that it’s safe to work on.

3. After turning off the circuit breaker, find out the devices on the circuit, like outlets, switches, lights, and so on, and look for blown fuses on them. In our devices, he found burn marks, and smells of melted plastic. 

4. He also looked inside the wires in each device, to check for connections. Then, he found a faulty wire, which he replaced with a new one.

5. If you find any sparkling sound, which was luckily not in our case, I’d recommend calling a qualified electrician immediately. 

Signs of Short Circuits

You must also be aware of a few signs of short circuits which will help you identify one in future.

• Metallic smell or burned plastic smell

• Shutting off of circuit breaker followed by a loud sound and sparks

• Tripping of breaker 

I hope this will help you understand how to fix an electrical short in a house.

I have heard about a lot of incidents where people have died due to electrical shock. In fact during the rainy season, India witnesses a number of cases where people have died after coming in contact with high-tension electricity wires. The water logged areas make it difficult to see the wires. Now ordinary people cannot do anything about it. It is the duty of the government to look after these matters. All we can do is to be sure that our houses’ wiring is safe and there is no chance of an electrical short circuit. I can share some tips to detect and fix a short circuit so here it goes.

Honestly speaking, it is better to ask some experts to do it if you are not familiar with wires or are pro at it. A short circuit can cause severe damage to the house and even death so do work wisely. Here are some tips that will help you know how to fix a short circuit. 

• Get a circuit tracer tool and locate the short in the cables

• Remove the shorted wire from the breaker panel and pull it from the outlet

• Attach a flexible wire to the breaker end 

• After having pulled out the cable, check its damage

• If the damage is huge, replace it with a higher-gauge wire

• Cut the damaged wire off using wire cutter and strip a section of both ends of the remaining wire with a size that fits your desired butt connector

• Connect the new wire to the existing cables using the butt connectors for strength

• After the shorted wire has been repaired, return it to its original place. 

• Pull the flexible wire that you have previously attached at the breaker side until you get to the repaired cable

• Connect it to the circuit breaker

• Once everything is done, turn on the primary circuit breaker

I hope you have got an idea about how to repair

electrical short circuit now. 

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