Peter,
Well, you didn't tell us much about the device, but in general I would
say that if you are relying on the fault protection to be provided by someone
else that's not a good idea. Its not something in your control and if the
installation doesn't have the proper breakers you got problems.
Off the top of my head I can come up with two scenarios:
Case 1 - A simple light fixture has no internal breaker and occasionally
when the filament burns out it can case a breaker to trip - so the fault is
protected outside of the equipment. This type of product doesn't have to be
held buy the user - so its really the wire that's being protected.
Case 2 - A hairdryer. If it is dropped into water - or whatever - it trips
its own internal GFCI. This type of product is typically being held by the
user during operation. So it's the operator or user that is being protected.
I'm sure others can put some caveats to all of the above - e.g. what
happens in the first case if the user happens to be touching it when the short
occurs and that probably has some validity.
Just my two cents worth for the moment - interesting question.
Gary
From: peter merguerian [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 11:54 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Circuit Breaker Tripping Dring Fault Tests
Dear All,
For safety, it is not clear from the standards whether the main branch circuit
breaker tripping during fault conditions is an acceptable result.
I see no reason why this should not be acceptable. What is your view? Some
third party labs find it acceptable and others do not.
Anyone can lead me to some inernational decisions regarding this issue?
Thanks,
Peter
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