ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Canadian panelboard

I recently aquired a new cutler hammer panelboard that was manufactured in Canada. I bought it with the breakers already in the box. A few things I noticed and am wondering if this is Canadian code. The 15 and 20 amp breakers have color coded handles. Also when the box is opened there is another shield that needs to be removed to access the main lugs. Is this required by the code in Canada? This panel will be installed here in the states so it does not matter, I'm just curious.

> The 15 and 20 amp breakers have color coded handles.
I have seen some of those.

> there is another shield that needs to be removed to access the main lugs.
That probably is required in Canada.
I want Canadian boxes from now on.

I have seen Siemens loadcenters up here with the double-pole breakers marked with green (visible when "Off"!?)And they also have a seperately-accessible main breaker and lugs. A good idea, in my opinion.

The colored breaker handles are nothing new. Murray typeMP, Bryant typeBR, & Zinsco type JUNK breakers have had: Blue=15A, Red=20A, & Green=30A handles for many years.
Also, these colors are used on toggle switches that are horsepower rated.
Just don't buy Federal Pioneer, which are a prettily colored version of the old FPE Stabloks and still made in Canada

Almost all of our new panels have protected main lugs now, either by a plastic shield clipped over the terminals or by having mthe input to the main switch in an enclosed unit with deeply recessed terminal screws. Some of the latter now even go to the extreme of having a push-in plastic cover to block entrance to the recesses.

One manufacturer (Wylex) also makes circuit breakers with color-coded handles, based on the color code of the earlier cartridge fuses. Originally: 5A=white, 15A=blue, 20A=yellow, 30A=red, 40A=orange. In line with European standards the 5, 15 & 30A breakers have changed to 6, 16, & 32A, but kept the same colors. They also added 10A=gray.