I was installing a light and tripped the breaker (in retrospect, should have turned the breaker off before starting). When I finished installing it I reset the breaker and tried the light switch. The light still had a short, however, instead of the same breaker tripping it ended up tripping the main breaker.
I disconnected the light, turned off all breakers, reset the main breaker, and turned the local breakers back on. Everything is now humming along perfectly. My current belief is that the local breaker must have been busted by the first short and failed to catch the second short.
Questions:
- Does this diagnosis seem correct (broken local breaker)?
- Does this mean I should have the main breaker replaced, could it be worn out now?
- Is there any way to test breakers other than making a short?
- Is it a good idea to replace breakers when buying a house (not a new one of course)?