Lost power in part of your home
How to find and reset a tripped breaker safely, and why you should stop if it trips again.
About 3 minutes · no tools needed
Safety first. If you smell burning, see smoke or hear crackling, leave and call 911. Never open the panel cover or touch wires.
- 1
Unplug big appliances
Unplug space heaters, hair dryers, microwaves or anything that was running when the power went out.
- 2
Find the tripped breaker
Open the breaker panel door. A tripped breaker is in the middle position or OFF.
- 3
Reset it once
Push it fully OFF, then firmly back ON. Do it only once.
Stop and contact maintenance if
- · It trips again
- · Part of the panel feels warm or smells
- · The power is out in the whole home (check with your neighbors and the utility first)
What to tell them: Tell them which rooms lost power, what was running, and whether the breaker trips again when you reset it.
For property managers
FixRoute walks your residents through this by text, at 2am, and only sends a vendor when it's really needed.
Every fix like this one is a truck roll you don't pay for. See it handle a real request in the live demo.