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What everyone must know about circuit-breakers.  Complete reticulation from the power station to your how When Mr. Edison and Mr. Tesla had their life-changing or more like civilization changing disagreement, circuit breakers did not exist yet, making Edison’s point – that AC is extremely dangerous – very valid. With no protection, sooner or later, everything would have burnt down under electrical fault conditions and humans would have died like flies…apocalyptic end of the world stuff. Every time it rains and it gets wet in the wrong places…big explosions from the electrical suppliers side. Every time a cable decides to short to ground or other lines…brilliant lightning bolts and flames, just like in the movies. Edison said it, and it is as true as day…AC voltages is dangerous, especially at the potentials humans are using it…but here comes the saviour…Mr. Circuit-breaker! We install it in the live conductor and whenever an over-current abnormality occurs…it trips. And there we have it, our lifesaver, Mr. Circuit breaker makes it possible for us to safely, under all circumstances of possible failure, route electricity all around the world right to your house so we can be warm and cuddly in winter with the electric blanket and all.
But Mr. Circuit breaker has a cousin. This cousin was apparently invented in South Africa, inspired by the electrocution of lady at one of the goldmines there…and this cousin probably saves countless lives every second around the world…yes every second…yes around the world. The South African know this boytjie as Mr. Earth leakage…apparently the Europeans NOW calls it a Residual Current Device and the Americans know it as a Ground Fault Current Interrupter(GFCI)…Really? In reality they all operate and install differently but that is a story for another time! Ok, I can’t resist:- RCD, aka earth leakage, works on differential current monitoring and the GFCI actually measures any the leakage current. gs
So, this is the low down on circuit breakers: The electrical reticulation starts from thousands of volts (kilovolts) and is dropped to safer levels for our usage then one can appreciate that the lines (conductors) will also become smaller as we approach the lower and safer levels. Every time the cable gets smaller, we install a circuit breaker to protect that thinner conductor and circuit. In reality, the different areas of electrical distribution is split in distinct groups/classes – high voltage, medium voltage and low voltage(1000V and less). This low voltage is our baby. The one that makes our every day, around the globe, and we will always find a code of rules and regulations to ensure public safety. Low Voltage Electrical Rules and Regulations: One day when I am big I would like to make a links available to all these codes for anyone, anywhere to read and assess in order to ensure the electrical installation around them is safe. I really believe it should be freely available to anyone, electrician or not, so one has the best chance of understanding the dangers of electricity. Conclusion: One can appreciate that, when a wire gets smaller it can carry less electricity…therefore the global rule: Whenever a conductor is downsized or a component within that circuit is lower rated then a protection device must be installed to ensure if more current is passed then the circuit can handle the electrical supply must be isolated – and the circuit breaker with his cousin the RCD /GFCI/Earth leakage does this job.
And that’s the gist of it.
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