What is a Breaker?

Breaker. 

What picture just popped in your head?  A giant wave crashing down on a tiny boat?  A toddler whacking stuff?  A puppy drooling leather from your best shoes?  A machine crunching up cars?

By definition, all those examples are “breakers.”  Shall we specify which colloquialism we are considering? In the world of Electrical Contracting, a Breaker isn’t a method of destruction.  You have several in your electric panel.  These are technically called “circuit breakers” as that describes exactly what they do.  A circuit is the flow of electricity and a circuit breaker breaks that flow.  Circuit breakers “trip” or open to protect the circuit from over-heating.