Checking Circuit Breakers or Fuses

  • To avoid a possible electric shock hazard, make sure your hands and the floor are dry.
  • Go to your home's electric service panel - usually, a gray metal box on an interior wall of your basement or garage, near your outside electric meter.
  • Open the door of the service panel and see if a circuit breaker is tripped (or a fuse is blown). If so, reset the breaker (or replace the fuse).
  • To reset a tripped breaker, move the switch all the way to "OFF," then all the way back to "ON."
  • To replace a screw-type fuse, turn the fuse counterclockwise until it screws all the way out, like a light bulb. Replace it with a new fuse of the same ampere rating (such as 10A, 15A, and so on) as the old fuse. DO NOT use a new fuse with a higher rating - this could damage your home's wiring or cause a fire!
  • If you are unable to check your own service because you don't have circuit breakers or screw-type fuses, or if you see bare exposed wires, please call our Outage Reporting Line, 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-544-4877).
  • If a particular breaker keeps tripping (or fuse keeps blowing), there may be a problem on that circuit. For safety's sake, have an electrician check it out.

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