As the electric stove has been taken into use in the home more and more widely, there is one more risk of a home circuit that you should watch out for. You may have the experience of taking a shower or doing any other things at home when suddenly you heard a click and your home went black. It is the breaker that is protecting your overloaded home circuit. And the electric stove also needs protection from the breaker. Therefore, you need to know what size breaker for a stove before installation to make sure the circuit safety.
How Does The Circuit Breaker Work?
The breaker is always connected with the wire and the wire insulation to work as an electric circuit system. Normally, electricity enters your home through wires and passes through circuit breakers to provide the needed power to appliances.
The electric appliance of small power does not have the risk of burnt-out circuit commonly, and high power needs to have dedicated circuit. If you do not connect a dedicated circuit to a high-power appliance, such as the electric stove, the wire can heat up under too much current. Too much electricity can cause the insulation to melt or degrade, which can be dangerous. In fact, many home fires are caused by this reason. However, having the circuit breaker and fuse in your wire system, it can lead to a totally different result. The circuit breaker can sense exceeding current and trip to stop the flow of electricity from the wire.
Since the electric stove is a kind of high-power appliance, a breaker is necessary for it. The circuit breaker for the outlet that the stove is plugged into is in your home’s electrical panel. When you plug the electric stove to switch on, the circuit breaker is already on.
What Size Breaker For A Stove?
We all know that the size of the kitchen appliances’ running circuit breaker matters a lot to kitchen security. Figuring out how’s the breaker working, now you need to know what size breaker for the stove. And here is some info about the size of the breaker for a stove.
The suggested standard breaker size for a stove is 50 amps, 200 volts, which is known as a double breaker. A single breaker carrying 110 volts can also run but serves the stove only. But in fact, there are other sizes of breaker that can run in the stove circuit. A standard household stove consisting of one oven and four burners can draw 30 to 50 amps of current. Other large commercial units require 50 or 60 amps.
Can I Use A 40 Amps Breaker For a Stove?
The answer is simply yes. Although the standard breaker size is 50 amps, 40 amps one can also work for your electrical stove well. However, you should pay high attention to matching the breaker to the right wire and make sure your stove corresponds. For example, your stove should rate at 12.5KW or less and then you can wire a 40 amps breaker with it.
Relations Between Range Wire Size & Breaker Size & Current Draw
Range wire Size Depends On Breaker Size
You should know about the range wire size so that you can choose the right wire for your electrical stove. If not, problems like short circuits can happen quite often in your kitchen. The size of the cable is measured by AWG and you need to size the wire in accordance with this. The data are as follow 10 AWG for up to 30 amps, 8 AWG for 40 to 50 amps, and 6 AWF for more than 50 amps.
Beaker Size Depends On Current Draw
Current draw, the circuit that’s determining how much current is consumed is often used and determines your breaker size. So how can you know the current draw for your stove? You can check this on the back of your stove and the current draw is always labeled. The stove could not work well whenever the circuit breaker is above or under the size. Make sure the circuit breaker’s current rating matches the rating on this label and you can choose the right breaker.
Why Does Stove Keep Tripping Breaker?
Sometimes you may confront with such a situation that your stove keeps tripping the breaker and the cooking couldn’t continue. But you have installed the stove successfully by hooking up the right breaker and wiring the right electrical cable. So why?
Circuit Overload
A kitchen stove is a type of high-power electric appliance and electricians suggest that designing a dedicated circuit to it would be better. If you often connect other appliances to the dedicated electrical stove circuit, the wires may overload. There are four appliances that are high-power including refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, and microwave. You should avoid connecting them on the same circuit.
Short Circuit
In the use of electrical appliances, a short circuit is often a kind of accident. When a hot or live wire touches a neutral wire, a large electrical charge can occur and overload the circuit and then leads to a short circuit. When a short circuit occurs, your stove will keep tripping the breaker. It is wise of you to call an electrician if this situation happens.
Weak Breaker
There is one more reason that can cause the problem. You know how does a breaker work and it can break a circuit when it senses too large a charge. So if you have a weak breaker that is not so sensitive, or it is undersized to keep the electricity demand of the stove, the tripping begins.
