Electricity and Industrial Circuit Breaker Technology Fundamentals

Electricity and its components can be a complicated subject. Breaking down some of the different components and elements involved in electricity can ultimately help to better understand the workings of industrial circuit breakers.

What are Amps, Volts, and Watts and How are They Related to industrial circuit breakers?

Amps, which is short for amperes, is the unit of measure for electric currents that flow through an electrical wire. Since electricity cannot actually be seen it can still be measured and amps just help to measure the effects of electricity. The other ways in which electricity is measured is through volts and watts. Voltage, or volts, in simplified terms are used to move the electricity throughout the circuit. A voltage of 120 in an electrical circuit is standard across the United States. Watts are used to measure the use or consumption, of electrical power. When a power company bills households and business for electricity, the measure of unit used is watts. The company measures the amount of watts, how much electricity is used, per hour when coming up with the figures for the bill.

Industrial circuit breakers are Safety Devices

Industrial circuit breakers are the safety devices in place for the electricity flowing through the wires. If there is too much electricity flowing through the electrical wires at one time where it might be dangerous, then the industrial circuit breakers shut off the electrical flow completely. Without an industrial circuit breaker in place when a large overload of power is flowing through electrical wires, then it can destroy the equipment or cause a fire. The circuit breaker detects that there is a large amount of electrical flow and shuts off the power in those wires as a safety precaution. The person conducting the repairs just has to switch the industrial circuit breaker back on to resume the electrical flow. The industrial circuit breaker has a switch that, when pulled down, breaks the circuit. The switch would have to be pushed up in order to resume the electrical flow.

As opposed to fuses which work in almost the exact same way, industrial Circuit Breakers can be reused and reset. Once a fuse has been blown then it has to be replaced. A circuit breaker can just be switched back on to resume normal electrical flow in the house or building.

types of industrial circuit breakers

Understanding how electricity works and the terms involved can be difficult. It is important to understand the basics of electricity in order to understand how industrial circuit breakerswork.