How to replace a circuit breaker

How to replace a circuit breaker. For the most part this is something that should be done by a licensed electrician. But hey you can do it. But if you're scared go hit the yellow pages. LOL

OK, one big thing I left out of the video, on the breaker your replacing there will a number on it. In most cases it will be right on the handle (switch) stating 15 or 20amp or really what ever it may be. This is the amperage, this means if the circuit is drawing more than the stated amperage that the breaker will trip, now once a breakers trips you should wait at least 10 minutes before attempting to reset it. The reason is because the whole circuit has been over loaded and you should let it cool down first.

Never ever keep trying to reset a breaker that has failed. Doing so will provide the circuit with electricity and this is bad. Say the breaker tripped because a rat chewed the insulation on the wires and now there touching. The breaker did it's job once for you. Don't think it will keep doing so.

This I seen before, a 15 amp breaker keeps failing, it trips ever so often and now the home owner changes it do a 20 amp thinking that it should work now. You know what, he was right. It did work, meaning that the breaker didn't trip for a whole two weeks. Instead the 14/2 15 amp wire in that circuit melted and made a fire. A very bad choice for him.

For a 15 amp circuit uses a 14 gauge wire with a 15 amp breaker 

For a 20 amp circuit uses a 12 gauge wire with a 20 amp breaker

As you can see from the picture below that the buss bars are staggered so the breaker that would be on top of the other one right on top of it will not take power from the same buss bar (phase)

So in other words, if you were to install a two pole breaker (220 volts) it will take power from both buss bars (both phases) creating 220 volts.