Find the Right Breaker Box for Your Home at Lowe’s
Breaker boxes are the main electrical hubs in a home, housing
circuit breakers that keep outlets and fixtures safely supplied with power.
They help keep lights, electronics, refrigerators and more powered and running.
Whether you need to wire a new circuit breaker box or replace one, Lowe’s has
your needs covered. We have everything from breaker box wiring to Square D
breaker boxes and more to keep your home safely powered.
How a Breaker Box Works
Inside an electrical breaker box, you’ll find circuit
breakers connected to the circuits that function as electricity distributors,
sending power to the different areas of your home. There are different circuit
breaker types, including standard breakers, ground-fault circuit interrupter
(GFCI) breakers and arc-fault circuit interrupter (AFCI) breakers. Each has
different amp capacities and is more beneficial to certain areas of your home.
If a light suddenly goes out or an appliance abruptly stops
working, a circuit breaker may have tripped, interrupting the power flowing to
that electrical circuit. Depending on the type, breakers trip when something on
the circuit pulls too much power, when there’s an electrical short or when the
breaker detects a grounding problem or an unexpected electrical discharge. You’ll
need to determine what caused the breaker to trip and have the problem
corrected.
Always be cautious when touching a breaker box. You can also
turn breakers off manually if you’re working on anything electrical on a
circuit, like installing a new light fixture.
Either way, breaker boxes are designed to increase safety — to protect you, your devices and your home.
How Many Breaker Boxes Can One House Have?
You’ll likely find these boxes — also known as circuit breaker panels — in garages, basements, pantries or even closets. Most homes will probably only have one. However, older or larger homes may have more than one breaker panel.
In new builds, the standard is a 200-amp breaker box; older
homes may only have a 100-amp breaker box. You’ll want to make sure that the
amperage rating for an electrical panel box is enough to sufficiently cover
your home’s electrical needs. So be mindful of everything needing power and
choose the amperage rating that suits your needs for power and safety.