As I was working from home the other afternoon, the lights in my office suddenly went out. It wasn’t storming outside, so I was confused as to why the power had shut off. As I walked around the house, I noticed that only a few of the electrical outlets had lost power, so I realized that there was a tripped breaker. I went into the basement and found the electrical box and switched the breaker. After working for 30 more minutes, the breaker tripped again! I spent all morning flipping the breaker every 30 minutes before I discovered what was causing it. The blower on my furnace was overworking, which was causing the breaker to trip. I’d neglected to replace the air filter a few months before and things had taken a turn for the worse. When I removed the air filter, it was super congested with dirt and dust, causing the blower to power through. The furnace was using so much energy trying to push air through the dirty air filter and it was causing the circuit breaker to trip constantly. I had to research what constantly tripped a breaker, and one of the first things that popped up was a dirty air filter. When I saw this, I immediately remembered the dirty air filter I’d neglected to replace. I’m thankful for the internet, because there’s no telling how long it would’ve taken me to realize that my dirty air filter was causing the furnace to malfunction, creating a tripped breaker. It could’ve become a serious issue.