Most places you live in today will manage their electrical power via circuit breakers, though fuse boxes predated that technology in the early 20th century.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. An older couple taking a look at their circuit breaker box - Coldsnowstorm/Getty Images Circuit breakers can be frustrating.

When the lights finally flicker back after an outage, the instinct is to rush to the panel and flip everything on. That ...