MS wrote:
1) This particular fan has lights attached, but there is only one
simple on/off switch for the fan/light.

2) The front half of the house loses power when the fan trips the
breaker. (It is only one breaker which trips)

3) I'm not quite sure how big the breaker is. I'll have to check.

1) are you saying that 1 switch turns on/off both lights and fan? IE
there are no separated switch on the fan? Odd. But you could still
remove the bulbs to leave just the fan motor working.

2) What's in the front half of the house, only lights and empty wall
sockets? You can add up the watts (the Amps if they are shown) of all
the devices/lights and see if that total exceeds or is very close to
the capacity of the breaker (see below). Don't forget the fan. In case
you forgot -- Amps = Watts/Volts

3) There is a number on the breaker that shows the amps. Something like
15, 20, 30 etc...