I was looking at an electric heater and it seems to be just some red hot wire and a fan, how can it get so hot without triggering the circuit breaker? Is it a big load? Is it something like the little filament on a lightbulb?
In: Engineering
Yes, and no.
Yes in the sense that a heater can be just a wire that is “shorted” across a voltage.
No, in the sense that the wire has resistance, and as it heats up that resistance increases. The increase in resistance balances out the amount of current that it draws so that it does not draw too much current and trip the breaker (or melt).
The size (thickness), material properties and length of the wire are very important factors in how much current it draws. If you were to shorten the wire (lowering the total resistance) then it would draw too much current and will either melt or trip the circuit breaker.
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