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For many seniors, air conditioning is an essential way of protecting themselves from extreme heat conditions in the summer. However, if their air conditioner is continually causing their circuit breakers to trip, they may be in a dangerous situation.

Air Conditioner's Easily Trip Breakers

During the hot months of the year, senior citizens are likely running their air conditioner constantly. This is especially true if they are living in a small apartment that is more susceptible to high heat levels. Retired seniors who spend most of their time at home watching television or pursuing personal hobbies may use their air conditioner particularly heavily.

All of this operation is likely to trip their circuit breaker at some point. Air conditioners require a pretty heavy load of an apartment's electrical output. Running by itself shouldn't be a problem, but if a senior is watching television or running another power-heavy item (such as a dishwasher), this could cause the circuit breaker to trip and turn off the air conditioner.

This Can Be Dangerous For Seniors

While a tripped circuit breaker during the day is an easy fix for most seniors, a tripped breaker at night could be dangerous. For example, if their breaker gets tripped during a very hot night while they are sleeping, they could run the risk of heat stroke. This health problem will cause them to sweat excessively, dehydrate, and can cause confusion and even death.

Avoiding this problem requires avoiding tripping the circuit breaker when running the air conditioner. Turning off all unneeded electric items during the night should help with this problem. For example, seniors shouldn't wash their clothes or laundry to save time during the night. However, what happens if a tripped breaker is not the problem?

When The Unit Gets Damaged

Fixing a tripped circuit breaker is fairly easy and most senior shouldn't have a hard time with it. For example, most modern apartments are likely to require just a flip of a switch to manage the problem. However, older circuits may need to be replaced when they are broken. Keeping extra circuits around is necessary for instances like this.

However, if a broken circuit is not the problem, then the air conditioning unit may have suffered from severe damage. This can occur when the circuit breaker gets tripped too often or simply due to wear and tear over time. Situations like this are particularly problematic for seniors because there is no easy fix that they can do on their own.

In this situation, it is important to contact an air conditioning maintenance and repair company right away. They will assess the problem and either repair the unit or install a new one. In fact, replacing it might be a good idea because newer models are less likely to continually trip the breakers.