TIL that loose wire connections on breakers can create arcs, heats up the wires or the breaker internally and cause an electric fire
TIL that loose wire connections on breakers can create arcs, heats up the wires or the breaker internally and cause an electric fire
- carbon on contacts due to arc burn can also act as a resistance and create fire
- burned wires must be also snipped or much better, replaced to avoid electric fire.
The whole line is dangerous. Often from something like a window AC or portable heater added to to same outlet as room lighting and a TV or computer. The AC or heater is already near the maximum current for the line, usually 1400 watts. If you feel the outlets or wire in the walls they will be warm or hot. We have a lot more stuff plugged in than the era when most houses were built. Any connection issues can cause further problems. The wall outlet and circuit breaker are common. If your lights start flickering at all, you need to find the issue quickly. That isn't always going to happen, but in many cases flickering lights are a sign of the problem.
Meanwhile landlords: two outlets should be enough for a living room right?
Yep. All the way down to backstabbed outlets (which should be against code but isn’t, at least in the NEC).
Starting a fire? Circuit breaker casts fireball