Fuse Boxes and Circuit Breakers

Most houses have either a fuse box or a circuit breaker as they are neccessary to stop an overloaded circuit (electric). If a circuit is overloading, the fuse in a fuse box will melt and thus stop the current. The fuse is a thin metal strip that can conduct electricity. Almost all houses built prior to 1960 will have a fuse box and those after, a circuit breaker. The circuit breaker is a switch that gets flipped when an unsafe current flows through. This method is however slower and not instantaneous.

The key difference is however that the circuit breaker can be flipped back and reset whereas the fuse needs to be replaced.

Now don't try to be a smartass and replace the fuse with something like a coin if you don't have a replacement on hand. This is because it can and will cause a fire. This is exactly what a person a few houses down from me did, and his house burt down.

You can imagine each circuit as a circle that connects a few electrical outlets and somewhere along this circle is a circuit breaker/fuse box. In order for there to be an electrical current, there needs to be a path for the electricity to flow along. Once the connection is blocked/broken at the fuse box/circuit breaker, all the outlets along the circuit would stop working. Thus each house has multiple electrical circuits to not overload the system and in the case of an overload, not all go down.