Это видео недоступно.
Сожалеем об этом.
Inside a faulty UK Wylex circuit breaker.
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 9 ноя 2017
- I was sent this faulty Wylex circuit breaker to take a look at. It's a common brand used in consumer units (home distribution boards) in the UK. The contacts had suffered burn damage and were not making a reliable connection. After seeing what was wrong I thought it would be good to show how the mechanism in an MCB (Miniature Circuit Breaker) works. Especially the bit that lets it still trip while the toggle is being held in the on position.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of RUclips's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
Hey Clive hope family are well. You probably know already but cody has mentioned you briefly in a video thanking you for your support.
Looks like I’ll be swapping out all the other breakers - thanks for the heads up !
It won't cost too much and will possibly save further issues. If you look for the Wylex recall they may send you a set of new breakers.
checking up on this the 32amp isnt included on the recall -
www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/product-recalls/2010/10/electrium-miniature-circuit-breakers-(mcbs)/
that circuit has never had any fault current on it either (was a cooker circuit) i think just replacing these with schneiders is probably my course of action.
You should dig out your clear breaker and film in slomo it breaking a large current and the fins being used to dissipate the short.
Hmmm.... Destin and/or the SloMo guys might be able to help with that... or The Backyard Scientist
Mikeselectricstuff has that video already
All in the US, none near Isle of Man.
I was going to suggest the neon sign transformer so we could watch how the arm moves.
Send it to Photoninduction
i dont watch for the stuff you do, i watch cause your voice is fucking amazing
I could listen to Clive all day...he beats James Earl Jones for the smooth & soothing voice
And you learn good shite ;)
Al Murray called it, Scot-Ish
ruclips.net/video/EX98LGnvc1E/видео.html
There was a fairly ubiquitous breaker in Canada under the sylvania/commander brand that had its CSA rating revoked due to occasional failure for the breaker to throw in a fault. This breaker had been put out to pasture back in 95, but it is still found in most buildings built in the 80s.However they did make newer versions with improved innards. Breaker itself seems to have a bakelight shell and the panels are all metal housing. I haven’t seen any plastic panels here.
i think our latest regulations brings back metal panels, for fire protection reasons
I presume you're talking about the infamous FPE Stablok 'nevrtrip' ?
Over here in the UK the same design of breaker 'stablok' was sold as 'federal electric'. Not sure if the tripping issues were also carried over.
And no, as JUSB says, our regs have changed back to metal panels. Our panels were (and are) a LOT smaller than North American panels, so plastic made sense (our circuit design is to prevent fire, rather than contain it, which the NEC/CEC seem to focus on). But as Clive says, bad workmanship, or bad batches, could render all that moot, and there were enough incidents, especially in the London area, that the London Fire Brigade lobbied the IET to change the regs, I believe. I support the idea, but the rules actually say 'non combustible' not 'metal'. I'd have thought bakelite would also conform, but no manuf. seems to have gone that direction.
I have Heard about the wide popping margins on the FPE panels. There are pretty bad for taking their time to blow 😝
There was the FPE/Federal Pacific "Stab-Lok" breakers that would never trip, and there were also the Sylvania/Zinsco breakers. I think a company called Challenger purchased a part of Sylvania and continued to market the defective Zinsco breakers, but I may be wrong. Those Stab-Lok panels are fairly bad, though.
The FPE breakers were very slow to trip but there was never really an issue with them in Canada having problems, but are now obsolete since they were bought out by Schneider electric that also own "Square D"... Some of the more recent FPE panels had Square D main breakers within.... The "Commander/Sylvania" ones in question were the "QBH" series and found everywhere from the mid 70's to mid 90's and even their newer replacement the "BQL" series lasted 2 years before becoming obsolete. Those had problems with where the breakers bolted to the buss and breakers completely overheating and destroying themselves.
I wish I had a Federal Pacific breaker box with Stab-Lok breakers I could send you. They were really popular in the US from about 1950 to 1990, despite being absolute garbage. About 1 in 4 FP Stab-Loks would fail to trip in a surge condition, resulting in about 2800 house fires each year, during this period! They eventually got busted for faking their UL test results, but no major recall was ever organized. As a result, there are a lot of these old panels still installed. I ran across two of them while home-shopping just about four years ago.
On the 11kv breakers we worked on in the power station the arc chutes were ceramic and the labyrinth effect dissipated the arc by, in effect, stretching it out. The breakers were air assisted to help carry the arc up into the arc chutes via arcing horns. The mechanism opened with such ferocity that it's had to be damped. Regular maintenance was required on these pieces of switchgear as they had such a hard life!
Nice analysis. It's amazing how many ways breakers are done, and how the laws and codes around the world effect them.
With that thought, I had an idea for a longer video if you wish to do one.
It would be interesting for viewers around the world to donate, say, a standard branch residential load center breaker model typical of their country/region, and once you have them all broken down, you could do a comparison between operational principles, assembly method, and materials. Any counterfiets found could be identified and analyzed and the guilty maker identified if possible. (I find it stunning even the most unscrupulous counterfeiter would sell a dead short breaker. That's tantamount to murder if it kills someone, a family, or a building full of people, all of which are a distinct possibility.)
Thanks for the interesting content, great video! (for our sort of people anyway)
wonderful idea . and many get old and fragile over time .
In Thailand we have a general products store named Big C. Watching this video my Thai wife asked me if the demonstration was at our local store. "Why?" I said. She pointed at the screen and said, "See, there is says BIG C LIVE dot COM. ..... Thanks for the best laugh I've had this week!
Clive, only today I replaced a volex mcb which had melted its self to its neighbour, lots of smoke and black coating inside the fuse box, no apparent overloading so it just failed in normal use, the box was the main board for a fish frying range so ran at a moderately high temperature
This may explain the failure.
Might also be that it has tripped often, or was used to turn something on and off (like a light switch), the contacts might have failed and gone high resistance.
Fond memories of Mike overloading one of these and blowing it to smithereens... and his lab lighting with it....
"Oops"
Brings back memories that one Clive! At the time (2009/10) I was running a major project, and we ended up changing 1500 of the damn things! You are absolutely right in that it was only the lower current ratings that were admitted at fault, and recalled. We changed 6A and 16A only, I can`t speak for the 10A MCB as we did`nt have those installed. Although information was rather vague at the time, we were informed that they had tried using `less copper` in the manufacturing process, I assume to keep costs down during the global recession. Shame really, as it`s predecessor was fine, the one you have here always did feel a bit cheap and nasty.
Federal Pacific and Sylvania breakers here in the states also had problems which resulted in recall. The Federal Pacific breakers would not trip and the Sylvania breakers would decompose similar to what you described for the Wylex breakers. The problem was that the breakers (sylvania) were to small to dissipate the proper amount of heat. The Federal Pacific problem continued until Ralph Nader exposed them. Still sold for years by disreputable suppliers they continue to be a problem. The fault is only revealed when you need them....a 20 amp breaker would melt down before they would trip. Essentially they allowed unlimited current.
My parents' house has a very strange board with buttons rather than levers. Each button has a small black and white label which will say "ON" or "OFF" as appropriate. You have to press it in then release to toggle. It bulges out farther when off. I suppose in a way it prevents the false reset where a breaker appears on after tripping, but has not made the latch back as can happen with the lever-style switch but it seems like an odd design. I kind of hope it blows one day so I can explore it more.
It sounds like the Wilex fuse-retrofit button breakers.
The wisdom of Clive yet again
Tres interesting, and a lot more complex than I might have thought. Somewhere hereabouts, we have one that will not switch back on. It tripped one day for no obvious reason, and the dolly will no longer reset nor latch into the on position - I wonder where it got put, and if it could be repaired, though by the sound of it, it's not worth repairing even if it were physically possible.
As other posters mentioned, the high current fault creates a magnetic field and the arc path acts like a wire in a motor and is forced to move into the chute. It is much the same principal as a rail gun, but without a solid projectile.
In the USA, there are some old breakers from the 70's that are faulty. Unfortunately because the manufacturer is long since gone, they can't be recalled.
What happens is they will jam and fail to trip even on a severe overload (like 100A flowing through a 15A breaker).
There are also some other old breakers that have grease in them which dries out and causes them to jam as well... -_-
And then there are some old breakers that have a poor buss-bar contact design - they end up overheating.
Some of these old breakers have a failure-to-trip rate of 70 to 80%!!!
@10:35 There may be 2 paths for an arch to travel to the copper sink because there is 2 potential source directions. One from the mains supply to the breaker and an alternate back path EMF from the device that was using the power. A high capacitive/inductive load using the power may briefly have stored energy going back to the breaker even once the mains is removed/opened. The residual energy from the load need to go somewhere safe.
I have seen Vynckier MCB now GE MCB and Schneider MCB also worked for those manufacturers, mechanisms are identical but careful section of bimetallic strip which depends upon current ratings of breaker is very important. Also to reduce the intensity of arc it is guided to spread and then quenched in arc chute
Clive, one little remark. The short circuit current rating is 6000 amps in a rectangle. That means in home application 6000 amps and 10000 amps industrial. It means also that you can try to switch on the breaker whiteout destroying while there is stil a secondary problem. (for example a short circuit).
You can generate hundreds of amps to test a circuit breaker with a soldering gun. Run wires from the electrodes through the CB instead of the regular tip.
My first engineering job was in the testing lab at Bulldog electric/ITE in Detroit. We did UL testing among other things.
I know nothing about circuitry but I found this very interesting for some reason
Funny you mention the mis-clamping, got called out to a house without power, last electrician had missed the clamp on the mains, had been working fine for over 6 months and when upset teenager slammed the door right next to switch board, bumped the cable off!
Thanks, Clive, for this illuminating video on circuit breakers.
I especially appreciate your warning to be wary of Chinese forgeries.
I wasn't aware of this - a lot of mine are Wylex and about that old. Rats!
Thanks for the warning Clive.
www.mcbexchange.co.uk/electrium/RecallAdvertWeb.jpg and the actual impacted manufacturing date codes (so you don't have to fart about contacting the manufacturer - www.landlords.org.uk/sites/default/files/electrium_recall.pdf )
I know where to look for little fins to cool things off with . ;) Thanks again Clive .
It think it would be interesting to take a look at an US/Canadian circuit breaker and compare it to the UK ones
I had some of these as part of a new build and they were replaced after a product recall but not until about 2014... Although they didn't change the NSB32 breakers. NSB6 and NSB16 were replaced though.
Thanks for sharing some of your ninja knowledge about recalls, forgeries, etc., Clive. A very interesting video.
I heard of this kebab restaurant, and they had a problem with the breaker tripping all the time so they put a little wooden stick under the toggle to prevent it from tripping...It's surprising they did never have a fire...
Danny Boel doing that wouldn't make a difference it would still trip inside
they had an other type of breaker, unlike the faulty one Clive is showing.
Interesting, it is also worth mentioning that such breakers are only rated to break a high fault current four to six times and then should be replaced.
I've a couple of p&b gold relay things I rescued from getting chucked at work. If you're interested Clive. Think they are industrial motor trips switch.
Very good information, always buy from reputable places ,there are some things you can't skimp on and safety equipment is one of them
Due to electromagnetics, the arc will move away from the source, that can even happen to be down.
I have seen this happen in n a demonstration is a shot circuit laboratory.
An empty connection box for 400VAC was shorted between the rails with a 0.5mm2 wire, and fed with 400V, 12kA for 10 cycles (0.2 seconds).
After the smoke cleared, it was visible that the wire was still wrapped around the copper, and the ends of the copper bars were melted.
Very good video of a circuit breaker. I think I will strip an American one sometime soon and see how that works.
Cool thanks for this, always wondered how a MCB worked inside, what causes it to trip etc. Great video as always :)
You were right with arc heating the air.. that is why the arc expands, as does with Jacob's ladder
The insides of this thing look surprisingly steampunk, so much copper, one of those devices that’d be a good to scavenge parts from for use as decoration on a cyber-punk or bio-tech looking build, like a Borg outfit or similar.
A spicy one yet again daddy Clive
I was told by the speaker at the International Arc Flash conference that the arc always travels away from the energy source irrespective of position of the electrodes.
I've noticed these tend to fail frequently like this when there is dust ingress, usually after plastering work and mostly the 6 amp ones.
quite a lot for a few pounds really, here in the States I don't think they are quite that cheap and with the exception of newer arc fault styles they are quite a bit simpler too, US electricians chime In
The arc is magnetic and the breaker uses a electromagnetic field to pull it into the arc chute. As it goes into the arc chute the field is stretched through the louvers to the point he can no longer stay sustained.
With a good MCB (Schneider/Hager etc) it won't be possible to unscrew the clamp and have it stuck at the top, as the screw is captive and forces the clamp down anyway. Also when the clamp is tightened, a shield blocks the hole to make it obvious. Furthermore, the location for the comb busbar makes it obvious that it doesn't accept bare wire. In many ways common residential electrical supplies in the UK seem to be of lower quality.
So big Clive I'd love to know why it was faulty ??????👍🏻👍🏻
The contacts were pitted and not making connection properly. Possibly as a result of opening or closing under load several times, but possibly also due to contact oxidation.
bigclivedotcom 👍🏻 nice one regularly changing these due to not resetting or getting hot .
Perhaps the ports are what drive the arc? if the expanding gas only has one way out it would make sense for the arc to follow that path too
Gonna send you my cat, hes just nasty and unfriendly, maby sum short in the electrical system? :)
The Spectator
Is it a bobcat?
hahahahahahah :) Well he is kinda big, :) He keeps repeating him self "im am borg"... dunno,,, wierd cat
The Spectator
I was making a reference to this:
xkcd.com/325/
hahahah, allright, that made sense :) havent seen that before :)
The moment I read "bobcat" I remembered this comic :D
Clive, @10:40 could the magnetic field be pushing the arc out? Like how a rail gun works? The arc and the rails would be creating a self repelling magnetic field. (Maybe. IANAS.) Otherwise, plasma expands and goes up, possibly because it's lighter than air. See plasma in microwave videos.
Gersberms *Plasma in electric arcs goes up because it heats up air (the arc is also made out of air in the plasma state) and as you probably know hot air is lighter than cold air (as long as there is no significant pressure difference)
That's is right in some parts. The plasma is ionised which make it magnetic. And then Yes get pushed from the outer magnetic field.
When an arc ignites it's travels away from the power source. When the current is big enough.
Arc would be traveling more or less parallel to the field lines, so no force exerted. Force from a magnetic field acting on a moving charge is proportional to the sine of the angle between the velocity and the field lines.
Remember it's for AC, which is a lot easier to break because it crosses zero.
Actually, thinking about it some more, I would depend on what angle the moving contact is at relative to the fixed contact. It looked horizontal in the picture, but it might have been diagonal, in which case the charged particles would spiral around the field lines, right into the quench plates.
I suppose you all over there might come back with the same sort of question, but from over here on the 60Hz side of the pond, the "odd" breaker ratings - e. g., 32 A - used in the U. K. have me scratching my head. I'm used to currents like 15, 20, 30, 50, 100, etc. amperes.
I've never really thought about it, but on the basis that our cables are all round metric cross sectional areas, it might be to fit the current capacities of the cables.
Don't forget 40 amps, though they are usually made up of two 20s with a tie bar.
I have a wylex rcbo 6a you can have for a tear down. Unused, probably works fine, but appears to have been dropped.
The arc follows the airflow. The airflow starts when the arc strikes. (the heating of the air creates the flow) The air can only flow towards the vents. Thats why the arc always go to the arc snuffer.
Funfact. When they get very slowly closed, there is a point where it can't trip. It's the point just when the contact is make. I have seen this on many German ones with capacitive loads...
I'll keep that in mind for the rare time I find a breaker with far too many high inrush loads connected to it.
Interesting stuff, any chance you could do an RCD also, I'd be mega curious to see inside on of those but don't have a spare knocking around or the BigCliveDotCom wisdom to understand wtf its doing, but I am sure it would also be some well engineered and interesting electromechanical goodness.Maybe if someone has an old non functional / spare RCD they'd like to donate it to the cause?
Inside an rcd there are 2 coils monitoring the current flow through the live and neutral , in the the event of an earth leakage the current flow would differ , this would trip the mechanism . Simple device .
Thanks, very useful to see it from the inside. Few Wee questions:
“…mains come in … it would be coming from … the bottom (of the breaker)”?. My understanding is, due to standardisation of installation practices and therefore safety, it is recommended (or mandatory depending on the mechanisms and countries) to feed the breakers from the top? (what happens in the real life is another story).
Seeing the breaker from the inside, it makes sense to feed from the top: The slow overload can be easily detected by the bimetallic bar at the top, and the venting of the short-circuit makes more sense when coming from the bottom (load)?
BUT, although people recommend feeding mains from the top, many suggest that mechanically it would have the same results to feed mains from the bottom (as you mention here). Which, from this breaker you are showing, feels counterintuitive? I am trying to see if really there is no difference mechanically. Apologies, I hope I am making sense…
The current is the same and being AC it's flowing in both directions. So theoretically it doesn't matter which end is input and output on an MCB. But some RCDs/GFIs do need connected in a particular direction.
Nice and very informative tear down. Thanxs.
I wonder if the solenoid coil is somehow providing a magnetic influence to help blow the contact opening arc into the arch chute? I can't quite see how that would be working in this physical construction, but I know they make magnetic arc blowout units.
Fabulously instructive video! Thank you!
Thanks for the awesome teardown.
Haha, from the thumbnail I thought it was a full breaker panel............It was NOT!!! lol, Still kewl tho.
Maybe the arc wants to open up just because of the Lorenz force. You know, similar to how a railgun would operate.
That's it exactly. The arc will fire itself up those two copper tracks and smash into the copper quench bin.
Good advice as usual.interesting stuff
Nice one Clive.
Solid subject and vid.
Is it it getting a bit nostalgic in here?
Is there any way to create an arc deliberately, just to get some high-speed footage showing the operation of that finned structure? Perhaps if you used something really inductive like a welder as a load, with some separate means of safely operating the trip mechanism?
For all the component cost there should be some gasket to form a water proof shell.
thumbs up
Thank you for sharing
very interesting
wish you a pleasant weekend
best regards Frank
It does seem weird that the arch would want to move away from where the contacts are close. Perhaps the hot expanding gases carry the arch that way because its the only opening to atmosphere and the only direction to expand to.
Hmm, I think I have a Wylex MCB or two in a consumer unit I never used for anything (bought it to take to bits, long before I ever heard of yourself!!) that was bought around that time, should probably check it and see if it's got any dodgy ones...
Seems mine aren't recalled, found a post detailing the date codes on a forum, and mine isn't in there, though this one you have is, but the affected ones are the 6A, 10A and 16A, guess that one you got sent was just plain faulty... :)
That forum post I found:
www.electriciansforums.co.uk/threads/wylex-recall.14690/#post-113448
Hager from 1990’s adjustment screw corrodes and melts latching mechanism
Just to complete A type 2-3 nominal currents trip , type B 3-5 , type C 5-10 type D 10-20 In's
Awesome !
Be interesting to see the bimetal strip Vs current/heat to see what it would heat trip as
I guess 6000 amps sounds like a lot until you look at an ampere graph for a dead short. I wonder how they (if at all?) standardize arc ratings?
biglivedotcom, I think it would be a good upgrade for your channel if you could upgrade your camera with a decent one (not that this one isn't) with 4K resolution (maybe at 60 fps). Also many likes to your channel. I really enjoy your videos !!
This video was slightly out of focus for the latter bit if that's what you mean. I'm not getting much time at my bench at the moment so there wasn't enough time to re-record it.
No I mean that I really like your camera angle setup, but I also think that it would be even better to have a camera with greater resolution so we can all see more details and enjoy your videos even more. But thats just me. Anyway, thank you for your reply. It makes me happy the fact that you read your viewers comments. It means alot.
Maybe the arc continues up that contact, because the hook is in motion, or was in motion.
I believe the Ark trajectory is affected by the point on the hook, I’ve seen the principle demonstrated by a scientist with a van DeGraff generator by pointing his finger which guided the electron flow out of this body.
Clive, is it possible that the magnetic effect of the trip solenoid is also utilised to control the arc? magnetic blowouts are often used in various kinds of circuit breakers both AC and DC.
I wonder ... how many dis-assemblies it will take until the new bench label needs replacing? Depends on the number of 'splosions, I suppose. Here's hoping for three!
It's very random. It usually lasts well, but heavy things like the FART transformer in the Jacob's Ladder video will obliterate it on contact.
Any chance of a "breaker" roulette this year instead of a resistor roulette? The more dramatic the better, I'm sure you could come up with some fantastic failures with little effort.
It looks like that block of copper fins is touching both chutes. How is it not forming a short around the contacts?
telemecanique schnider square D and merlin gerin are all the same company now !
Thanks for sharing 😀👍, interesting stuff
Nice, Whatever fuse or breaker, If it cuts off the power, that could be a good thing, If it catches on fire in the process, well, at least you are alive.
Except that breakers are supposed to prevent fires, that's what they're for.
unless you're not because it cut off the power, then burned your house down
TheChipmunk2008 So true
ihniwtpu Actually this type is not, it is designed to protect electrical wires from overcurrent. If you have 16 Amps protected circuits at home, a constant 8 Amp arc fault can still burn your house down and this breaker will never trip. There are AFCI for protection against fires.
And this type of breaker also doesn‘t protect you from electric shock. Only a solid ground fault or overcurrent of ten times the nominal amperage will trip it quickly. You touching the live wire would not cause it to trip, you would need an RCD
Something I don't understand: If the arc breaker is made of copper fins, isn't it conductive and it would close the circuit? I can't see any insulation between the contact point and the copper fins, so it shouldn't make a difference whether the contact point is open or closed, right?
+Victor Oliva It's a series of separate plates in an insulated frame.
Solar DC circuit breakers seem to be a lot more expensive than their AC equivalents. Even the eBay ones from China are more expensive (not that I would trust the safety of my gear to a Chinese breaker!). I'm building a solar battery system to run my network gear off-grid and I was a bit shocked when putting together the BOM. I'd be interested if the difference in cost is down to the construction or just difference in the volume of production.
The Up Late Geek breaking DC is significantly harder than breaking AC. With AC the current will eventually drop to 0 (zero crossing), not necessarily in-phase with the voltage depending on the load, but it will. And all you have to do is cool the plasma down at that moment to prevent it from reigniting.
DC on the other hand won't get this automatic extinguishing and requires you to break the arc in "full force". Photonic induction did a tear down of a DC breaker from a submarine where you can see the effort that goes into that.
I think the one Photonic tore down was actually from a telephone central office after doing some digging.
Probably a stupid question, but how does the current not flow through the arc chute? It's copper, and it looks like there's a path from one side of the breaker through the arc chute to the other side, so that current would flow even if the main contact disengages. That would obviously completely defeat the purpose of the breaker, so what am I missing?
softy8088 Clive shows a ceramic spacer, which he removed so you could see the internals. Edit: Time-stamp 08:15 in the video.
I looked up how an arc chute works. It wasn't clear just visually that while the fins are conductive copper, they are joined by a non-conductive spacer. It looked from the video like the spacer was copper as well, hence my confusion.
One of my pinball machines trips a breaker 25% of the time when I turn it on. I suppose it is the old school transformer tripping it. A 10 meter extension cord "solved" the problem, but I suppose the right solution would be to have a separate plug with a C type breaker on it.
Martin J or you could just get a surge protector with a breaker on it so you could reset it quicker
You can get components called NTC inrush limiters that work thermally. They start with a higher resistance that drops under load as they warm up. The pinball machine does have a chunky transformer in it.
You mentioned Schneider Electric and Square D....Square D is owned by Schneider.
A bit of a random comment here, Clive, but I was wondering if you've tried the "Chem-wik" type de-soldering wick? I think it's made by Chemtronics or something. I tried it once, and have never gone back to using regular de-soldering braid, even with rosin. I really think you should give them a try if you get the chance to. *Random comment becuse I was wathcing through some of your older videos and it looked like the type of wick you were using wasn't sucking up a lot of solder. And no, I'm not a Chem-wik sales rep, I just love that wick :P
Goes to check his Wylex CU installed around 2009 :-/
I have that exact same mini black screwdriver! but mines a different brand
I've looked online a bit a few months ago, and I couldn't find anything (I guess I wasn't phrasing my question correctly or something for google to be useful)... So maybe someone here could answer my questions on European power.
I'm confused on how single/double pole breakers work in Europe. In the US (for homes), we get 2 120V leads from the grid on opposing phases so we can run 120V to our normal outlets and lights, and then 240V for larger appliances. So 120V circuits get a single pole breaker since there's only 1 hot lead, and 240V circuits get a double pole since there are 2 hot leads. From things I've read people in Europe get 230V (or 220V?) from the power grid, and it seems to be like the US where its 2 hot leads on opposing phases, and I tested it with my multimeter when I went to Russia last summer and that was the case (2 hots and 1 ground in the normal outlet). But then what happens with the other phase? When I looked in a few breaker panels there I saw single and double pole breakers... If someone could post a link, or explain it yourself, that answers this that would be great.
Also, keep making awesome videos Clive :D
In the UK we have a standard three phase system of 240/415 (referred to as 230/400 now) with a single phase and neutral being supplied to homes and the full three phases being supplied to industrial and commercial premises. Home distribution boards generally have single pole breakers just breaking the phase. The only time double pole breakers are used is to break both live and neutral where it is required for safety purposes or to isolate neutral/earth faults where they may cause issues with RCDs/GFIs tripping.
Oh ok, that makes sense. Thank you.
(also I'm fangirling so hard right now)
in Switzerland (and i believe Germany as well), all three phases plus PEN (neutral and earth lead combined) are being delivered to the buildings. In the main building distribution board the PEN is seperated into earth and neutral. After the seperation and a couple of fuses for all 3 phases the energy meter is wired. After that they are distributed to the appartments. In the small distribution box of the apprtment the lights and normal outlets are wired to one random phase with a main RCD/GFI (so that each phase gets similar power draw). All power hungry devices like washing machine, tumbler and stuff like that get 3 phases (3x400V, very practicsl for running motors). The 2phase SCB you saw probably were 2phase RCD's/GFI's that are being used more and more often here.
Everyone gets three phases to the home? Doesn't that mean its easy to run industrial equipment in your garages? That's kind of frowned upon here in the states, and you have to do all sort of hijinks (See AvE with his converters/inverter things) to get it to run, or pay money out the ass.
yes, afaik everyone gets 3 phases (buildings that is, not all homes have the 3 phases usable). e.g. in rent homes where the washing machine is in the basement, maybe in the flat itself only single phase outlets are used; it really depends. you can use industrial equipments to a certain degree; normal circuit breakers are 13A, those for the washing machine/dryer area could go up to 3x16A
(5:55) The fins are isolated from each other, right? I mean, if they were not, how does it break the circuit? When the hook switches, it makes contact to the metal bar on top of the metal fins. The input however is attached to the bottom of the fins... Both attach losely, but they might make contact... So the fins must somehow be isolating, right? That's not obvious at all ... Quite confusing ^^
They are isolated.
I probably won't get a answer but if I use a circuit breaker with a higher amp than the device I'm using, would it only trip when it goes above that amperage?
Yes. Actually quite a bit higher than its rating. The breaker has to be chosen to match the cable.
ty clive x
I had an electrician in today to test/check my installation on behalf of Victory Housing (The housing association who owns the block of flats) and he plugged his device into a power bar I had in my bedroom to trip the RCD and it came up with a wiring fault, This baffled me as I use it and works fine (and I checked it before installing it) then he tried it in the second power strip (6 way) and got his reading. After he left I realised why he was getting fault on his device. The first power strip wasn't turned on. Because it's an 8 way and has a lot of old devices plugged into it (my old PC's and an old stereo system) and because accessing the strip is hard, I installed a switched fused spur so I can shut the strip off if need be. Oops.
Would the magnetism from the solenoid or its components work to break up the arc?
I'm not sure if the two interact.
Interesting. Are the arc quencher plates electrically connected to one side or the other?
There's an electrode from either side of the contact running up each side, so technically it's a stack of plates in between the contacts.
bigclivedotcom, Where is the current actually broken? All I see is a bunch of metal parts and what seems to be a continuous path. Also is the metal that is attached to the black plastic pawl hot??
The metal behind the switch is live. The actual contact point is the hook shaped electrode at the bottom.