Circuit Breaker are found in your home's electrical box. If the current flowing into the various lights and appliances in your home grows too strong, it can short out the wiring and cause a fire. Circuit breakers will trip when the current reaches a certain level: shutting off power to that section of the house until the problem can be addressed. Malfunctioning circuit breakers need to be replaced with new ones, but you don't need to call an electrician to test them. You can use a multimeter available at any hardware store and run a basic diagnostic on a circuit breaker very quickly.
1 Open the panel to the circuit breaker box in the house. The panel will be covering the circuit breakers which is located either in the basement or closet depending on the size of the house.
2 Check for signs of burning. A circuit that has blackness around it or smells like it is burning will need to be fixed. Do not touch it and turn off the power to the house from the main breaker box that is outside the home. Call an electrician to change out the damaged breaker.
3 Notice if any breakers have tripped. When a circuit in the house has tripped it will sit in the off position. Flip the circuit back towards the on position to see if it trips again. If it does then look to see which room that particular switch belongs to. There will be a list next to the circuits to show which parts of the house the Indoor VCB belongs to. Then go to that room and turn everything off. Flip the breaker back to the on position and then start turning everything back on in the room one by one. For example, if you turn on your bedroom light and the circuit trips then you will know that it is the wiring to the light that is causing the circuit to trip.
4 Check for loose breakers. A loose breaker will sit in neither an on or off position. When pushing the breaker to either on or off it will not snap into position and will loosely sit wherever you push it. This is evidence that the circuit breaker needs to be changed. Each breaker should pop into an on or off position.
5 Look for heavy corrosion. If a circuit breaker in a house has corrosion around it then you should have it changed and checked for a short in the wiring.
6 Use a voltage tester. This can help check for electricity through the circuit breaker Load Break Switch you may have in question. The tester shouldn't take more than 500 volts. Attach the red prong to the screw to a breaker and the black prong to the screw on the outlet plate. The light on the tester will come on to let you know if electricity is coming through the breaker.