ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Intentional short as means of turning off breaker

You could however use a lamp on the end of an extension cord, to find that breaker.
It's not rocket science.

LK, you're a no good low-down dirty liar and I'm going to go do the research to prove it right now...


Uh, oh, never mind...
http://www.sea.siemens.com/reselec/product/rzcbnotacb.html

"Short-circuit interrupting ratings: UL 489 requires a minimum short-circuit interrupting rating of 5000A for circuit breakers rated 250V and less, and 10,000A for those rated more than 250V. UL 1077 devices do not have short-circuit ratings, but the standard does required a limited short-circuit test at a maximum current of 5000A. (The actual test value varies from 200A to 5000A, depending on the rating.) The test and acceptable results are also quite different. UL 489 requires the circuit breaker to interrupt the circuit twice; in the first test, the faulted circuit is closed on the circuit breaker and then the same circuit breaker is closed on the fault. After these tests, the circuit breaker must still be functional and pass a dielectric test. UL 1077, on the other hand, requires supplementary protectors be subjected to three operations. However, the supplementary protectors can be wired in series with a fuse or circuit breaker (the branch circuit overcurrent protection), which is allowed to open during the test. While the device cannot become a hazard, it can become inoperable during the tests."

mmkay...

As I was very clearly just saying yesterday at 11:56AM, circuit breakers are not required to interrupt properly after multiple shorts, and it IS possible for properly installed wiring to be damaged from deliberately shorting a branch circuit.

What a half-arsed safety standard. When I finally break down and buy a house, I'm going to replace all the old breakers and rewire it with gold-plated #6. Or maybe install fuses. Do they make fuses in a circuit breaker form-factor? (I can just imagine the look on the salesman's face)

Maybe you could get a bunch of those Edison fuseholders that mount in a single-gang box and mount them next to your breaker panel, running each circuit through one.

On the one hand, people need to be held accountable. I despise the type of reckless, thoughtless, no-account work that leads to stuff like this.

On the other hand, the world is full of ignornace. We're all ignorant in different ways and a lot of us get in over our heads, some more than others.

This guy just didn't have enough sense to realize his limitations (one being that he wasn't a competant electrician) and it cost the lives of ten people, and in one way or another it will probably cost his life as well.

What an absolutely terrible way to have to learn that lesson.

-John

And imagine the look on your face when he asks how many you need

fuseholders



[This message has been edited by electure (edited 12-22-2006).]

Is that I-T-E Cordon breaker still made?

Probably not
Just a good example of "never say never".
Got an AFCI fuse?

Please, not an AFCI fuse!!

Is that actually both a breaker and a fuse assembly, in other words, does the breaker provide overcurrent/short circuit protection or is it simply a switch?

I believe that the "breaker" portion is just a switch, and this gizmo was used with high interrupting capacity fuses in services with high fault currents available.