Distribution board Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
. This breaker panel has 12 positions, the bottom six of which (shown in the picture) are taken up by two 3pole breakers (position 7, 9, 11 at left, and 8, 10, 12 at right) that each supply a separate 3phase circuit. It can be seen that american breaker panels have a Lot of exposed live parts when open. This is in sharp contrast with british distribution boards where live parts are usually confined to IP20 even with the cover off]]A Distribution board (known in the usa as a Circuit breaker panel or breakerpanel) is a mounting enclosure for multiple electrical circuit breakers. Single pole boxes with the breakers in just one row are known as consumer units. They are typically found in central locations inside buildings and often serve as the point at which electricity is distributed within a building. (For this reason, circuit breakers usually also function as switches to manually deactivate electrical circuits within a building when wiring is being serviced.) American breaker panels traditionally have lots of live parts exposed with the lid off. British distribution boards by contrast have live parts enclosed to ip20 even with the lid off. This makes testing a much safer buisnees espeically given the voltage (415V) present in such boards.
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2 inside an american panel 3 different manufacturers 4 location 5 mobile operation |
They cycle through the two or three phases, e.g. 1 and 2 are on phase "X", wheras 3 and 3 are on "Y", 5 and 6 are on "Z", and then it cycles around again, e.g. 7 and 8 are on "X", 9 and 10 on "Y", and so on. This numbering system is universal across various competing manufacturers of breaker panels . The reason for this alternating pattern is to allow for common trip breakers to have one pole on each phase. Ideally the number of rows is a multiple of 3, so there are the same number of breakers on each leg of the three phase supply, but this is not always the case, e.g. some 3phase panels have 40 breaker slots, others have 50, etc., rather than, say 42, and 48.
It is commonly known in north america that Siemens and Cutler Hammer panels and breakers of the type shown in the above and below picture illustrations, are interchangeable. Therefore, these two types of breaker panels have gained widespread acceptance as a "standard". The two shown panels (one Siemens, and the other Cutler Hammer) seem to fit GOULD Type QP, ITE type QT, Cutler Hammer Type BR, and Siemens breakers.
breaker arrangement
Breakers are usually arranged in two columns and are numbered left-to-right, along each row from top to bottom, as shown below:
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
11 12
inside an american panel
a typical american breaker panel that's located in a front livingroom. The three lugs at the bottom are the three "hot" ("live") wires. A fourth white (neutral) wire (not shown) comes in at the top of the panel to a neutral bar. This breaker panel has 12 positions, the bottom six of which (shown in the picture) are taken up by two 3pole breakers (position 7, 9, 11 at left, and 8, 10, 12 at right) that each supply a separate 3phase circuit. It can be seen that american breaker panels have a Lot of exposed live parts when open. This is in sharp contrast with british distribution boards where live parts are usually confined to IP20 even with the cover offdifferent manufacturers
Most of the time, the panel and the breakers inserted into it, must both be from the same company. Each company has one or more "systems" i.e. kinds of breaker panels, that only accept breakers of that type. In europe this is still the case dispite the adoption of a standard din rail for mounting and a standard cutout shape as the connections were not stadardised.location
For aesthetic (and sometimes security) reasons, circuit breaker panels are often placed in out-of-the-way closets, attics, or basements, but sometimes they are also featured as part of the aesthetic elements of a building, e.g. as an art installation, or where they can be easily accessed. Larger buildings or facilities with high electric power demand may have multiple circuit breaker panels. In this case, the panels are often indicated by letters of the alphabet, e.g. Decon Gallery (a modern building in downtown Toronto) has 11 breaker panels, designated "A", "B", "C", "D", etc., where, for example, the backstage outlet is labeled "C27". In many such buildings, each outlet is on its own circuit breaker, and the outlets are labeled in the above specified manner to facilitate easily finding which breaker to shut off for servicing, rewiring, or the like. American has the unusual practice of wiring large heating equipment line-to-line thus taking two slots in the panel (2pole). Large motors, air conditioners, sub panels, etc., are typically 3phase (3pole breakers), and thus take 3 slots in the breaker panel.