Electrical protection is essential to every electrical system and panels such as the Switchboard or the Distribution Board. At the heart of the protection devices are circuit breakers, they provide essential protection to faults such as Overload and Short Circuit.
You will be able to find essential information of circuit breakers on this page. What they are, how do they operate, and information about various types of circuit breakers? Types, sizes, how to select a circuit breaker, and the essential breaking capacity (kA) are all explained in details.
When classified into types by voltage they can be divided into circuit breakers for Low Voltage, Medium Voltage, and High Voltage. For most application in the residential, commercial, and most industrial site, Low Voltage circuit breakers are used. The Medium and High Voltage circuit breakers are mainly used in the grid power transmission and very large systems.
Low Voltage circuit breakers are the MCB (miniature circuit breaker), MCCB (molded case circuit breaker), and ACB (air circuit breaker). They are designed for the different application, phases, and breaking capacities.
Low Voltage Circuit Breakers
For less than 1,000 VAC, the term low voltage can be miss leading as we only use 100VAC-230VAC in our everyday life. The low voltage circuit breakers cover more than 99% of the market and are used in residential, commercial, and most of the industrial applications. They are installed in the consumer unit for home, or in a distribution board in a commercial building. The MDB (Main Distribution Board) is the point of entry into a commercial or industrial site. The IEC standard for the circuit breaker is the IEC 947.
Types of Circuit Breakers
Types of Circuit Breakers
RCD Residue Current Devices (RCCB, RCBO)
The RCDs are used for the protection of people and will instantly break an electric circuit to prevent serious harm from an ongoing electric shock. The residual-current circuit breaker (RCCB) is the most common device name in this group…