Why is my furnace tripping my circuit breaker

Have you noticed your furnace tripping the circuit breaker more frequently? Furnace tripping the breaker could leave you and your household vulnerable to the dangers of cold weather. While resetting your furnace could restore it to normal functioning when it trips once, it's repeated tripping that frustrates and worries most furnace owners. So, in this post, we’ll answer the question "Why is my furnace tripping my circuit breaker?" Before we jump into it, if your furnace keeps tripping the breaker over and over, avoid resetting the breaker. It's dangerous, and here's why.

Dangers of resetting your furnace breaker

The role of your furnace breaker is to help prevent fires that could otherwise be caused due to more than normal electric current passing through wires. Breakers accomplish this by automatically stopping too much electrical current from passing to circuits. 

3 Reasons why furnace circuit breaker keeps tripping

An overworked furnace

A furnace that's overloaded works harder than it normally should. It hence uses more electric current than how it normally operates. If you notice your HVAC tripping breaker now and then, this could be the reason. Overworked furnaces can be caused by: 

●     A filter that's dirty

●     Clogged air vents

●     Restricted ductwork

●     A faulty component

It’s important you consult HVAC specialists for seasonal heating maintenance.

A shared circuit

It's recommended that your furnace doesn't share a circuit with other components around. However, a lot of older houses in certain areas were built to share electrical current with other components around the house. When all components that share the circuit run at a go, the circuit could be overloaded pulling in more amps than what it's built for.  To solve this, ensure you don't run all the components sharing the circuit at a go.

Short circuit/ground fault inside the furnace.

Short circuits can happen as a result of naked hot wire encountering a neutral wire. Ground faults on the other hand can happen as a result of naked hot wire encountering a ground wire. The reason these two factors cause your breaker to keep tripping is because they greatly incret the amount of electricity being pulled by your furnace. They are often caused by faulty parts, wrong repair, or an animal chewing wires. To fix this, it's important you contact a HVAC specialist Atlanta.