ELECTRICAL PROCTECTION DEVICES

Electrical Installation Systems

ELECTRICAL PROCTECTION

Excessive current in any electrical circuit is hazardous and not desired, and these maybe caused by the
following;
1. Overloads, and
2. Short-circuits.

Overload Currents:
These are caused by excessive loads connected in which may result in an ‘excessive current’ more than
few times its normal current.

Causes of Overload Current:

1. Large amount of electrical loads or equipment connected to a single circuit.

2. High rated electrical loads or equipment connected to a low rated capacity circuit.
3. Overloading motors due to mechanical stress.

Note:
When an excessive current is increased considerably due to overload, cables will begin to heat up, If
this overload current is sustained, the cable insulation deteriorates causing fire or electric fault in the
system (such as short-circuits).

Short-circuit currents:

These are caused by direct contact between live conductors (or live and neutral) that may result in an
‘excessive current’ more than hundred times or even thousand times its normal current.

Causes of Short-circuit Current:

1. Direct contact between two or more current-carrying conductors having opposite polarities.
2. Contact between live wires due to poor insulation of cables or equipment.
3. Incorrect connections during initial installation or after modification current.

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Electrical Installation Systems

ELECTRICAL PROCTECTION DEVICES

All electrical circuits and appliances must be protected against excessive currents (overloads and short-
circuit currents) that may lead to hazards such as: fire, thermal, mechanical and electrical damages,
namely:
1. Fuse, and
2. Circuit Breaker.

FUSE
A fuse is a device that opens a circuit by means of a strip of wire, which is designed to melt when an
excessive current flows through it. The current rating for the fuse should not exceed the current rating
of the smallest conductor in the circuit it protects.

Basic Parts of a Fuse:

 Fuse element is a strip of copper, silver or tin-lead alloy, which melts when heated due to
excessive flows of current.
 Fuse links is part of a fuse which comprises a fuse element, a cartridge or other container, and
capable of being attached to fuse contacts.
 Fuse contact is part of a fuse where the fuse link is attached or fitted.

Fuse Terminology

Fuse current rating :-

It is the maximum amount of current the fuse can carry without melting its fuse element.
Eg. 5A, 10A, 15A, 20A,….100A.

Fusing current
It is the maximum amount of current, which is required to heat-up and melt fuse element.

Fusing factor
This is the ratio of fusing current to the fuse current rating.

Fusing Factor = Fusing current

Fuse current rating

Types of Fuse:

1. Rewireable (Semi-enclosed) Fuse.

2. Cartridge Fuse.
3. High-Breaking Capacity (H.B.C.) Fuse or High Rupturing Capacity (H.R.C.) Fuse

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Electrical Installation Systems

REWIREABLE OR SEMI-ENCLOSED FUSE.

This type of fuse consists of a tinned copper or a tin-lead alloy fuse element (rewireable) which is
directly screwed to the contact terminals of a semi-enclosed porcelain fuse carrier to be plugged into
the socket fuse base.

Standard rating of rewireable (semi-enclosed) fuse:

5A, 15A, 20A, 30A, 45A, 60A, 100A.

Advantages of rewireable fuse over the other:

1. Cheapest and most economical type of fuse.
2. Blown fuse element is easy to replace.

Disadvantages of rewireable fuse over the others:

1. Wrong types of fuse element is dangerous to the house hold.
2. Slower to blow compare to other types of fuse.
3. Sparking or arcing is not protected.

Sizes of fuse element (Plain or tinned-copper wire):

Current rating of fuse Nominal diameter of fuse wire
5A 0.15mm
5A 0.2mm
10A 0.35mm
15A 0.5mm
20A 0.6mm
25A 0.75mm
30A 0.85mm
45A 1.25mm
60A 1.53mm
80A 1.8mm
100A 8.0mm

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Electrical Installation Systems

CARTRIDGE FUSE
It is a totally enclosed type of fuse, whose fuse element is sealed by a tube which is filled with
fireproof material. It has metal cap on both ends where the fuse element is welded or soldered.

Cartridge fuse (for low rated appliances)

Standard rating of cartridge fuse:

5A, 15A, 20A, 30A, 45A, 60A, 80A, 100A.

Advantages of cartridge fuse over the others:

1. It is simple and quick to replace.
2. The fuse element is protected against sparking or arcing.
3. It operates faster than the rewireable fuse during fault conditions.

Disadvantages of cartridge over the others:

1. It is more expensive than the rewireable fuse.
2. It is disposable.

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Electrical Installation Systems

HIGH BREAKING CAPACITY (H.B.C.) OR HIGH RAPTURING CAPACITY (H.R.C.) FUSE:

It consists of a pure silver fuse element totally enclosed in a ceramic tube which is filled with fireproof
materials such as ‘silica’ and it is capable or interrupting a circuit under a heavy fault current at the
shortest period of time.

Standard rating of H.R.C. or H.B.C. fuse:

5A, 10A, 15A, 20A, 25A, 32A, 40A, 50A, 63A, 80A, 100A, 125A, 160A, 200A, 250A, 315A, 400A,
500A, 630A, 800A.

Advantages of H.R.C. or H.B.C. fuse:

1. It operates or interrupts heavy current fault quickly.
2. It is safe to use and less arcing or sparking effect.
3. It is accurate and reliable.
4. Blown fuse element is visible through its ‘indicator’.

Disadvantages of H.R.C. or H.B.C. fuse over the others:

1. It is more expensive than the others.
2. It is disposable.

Rapturing Capacity:

It is the maximum amount of fault current the fuse can withstand without destroying itself. Eg. 20kA,
200kA…..etc.

Rating of Fuse.
1. Fuse current rating (in Amperes).
2. Fuse voltage rating (in Volts).
3. Fusing Factor (F.F.) (no unit).
4. Rupturing capacity (R.C.) (in Kiloamperes).

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Electrical Installation Systems

CIRCUIT BREAKER.

It is a mechanical switching device designed for making and breaking a circuit, both under normal and
abnormal conditions, such as short-circuits and overloads.
 It can be switch ‘ON’ or ‘OFF’ manually.
 It will switch ‘OFF’ automatically during abnormal conditions such as short-circuit or
overload.

The circuit-breaker differs from the switch, whereas the switch is capable of making and breaking a
current not greatly in excess of its normal rated current, the circuit-breaker is capable of disconnects
automatically a faulty circuit, even in short-circuit conditions.

Two method of circuit breaker operation:

1. Magnetic tripping :-
This is due to magnetic field sets up by a coil carrying heavy current which attracts the iron part
and breaks the circuit.

2. Thermal tripping :-
This relies on extra heat produces by high current that warms the bi-metal strips bond and
breaks the circuit.

Advantages of circuit breaker over the fuse:

1. When tripped it can be reset easily.
2. Faulty circuit is easily identified.
3. It has an accurate tripping current.
4. It will be tripped for a switched overload.

Disadvantages of circuit breaker over the fuse:

1. It is expensive
2. It has mechanical moving parts.
3. It needs regular testing to ensure satisfactory operations.

Note:
Thermal operation of C.B. is rather slow and nor suitable for interrupting heavy short-circuit currents
quality. However, it is widely used as overload protection.

Residual Current Device (RCD)

This is a circuit breaker which detects a current leaking to earth and uses this leakage current to operate
the tripping mechanism. This leakage current is a residual current. It should be noted that this device
will not protect against short circuit and overload.

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Electrical Installation Systems

MINIATURE CIRCUIT-BREAKER (M.C.B.)

It is used as final sub-circuit protection in domestic and commercial installation which is similar in
construction with M.C.C.B. except that it is designed for lower current rating and short-circuit
capacity.
M.C.B. standard current ratings: 6A, 10A, 20A, 32A, 40A, 50A.
Voltage rating : Up to 440V.
Short-circuit capacity: Up to 9KA.
The Miniature Circuit-Breaker (MCB) has found an increasing application in domestic and small
industrial installations. It is use as an alternative to the fuse, and has certain advantages:
 It can be reset or reclosed easily;
 It gives a close degree of small overcurrent protection (the tripping factor is 1.1);
 It will trip on a small sustained overcurrent, but not on a harmless transient overcurrent such as
a switching surge (e.g. on fluorescent lamp circuits)
 Faulty circuits are easily identified with the ON and OFF position of the device.
 The supply can be quickly and easily restored when the fault has been cleared.

For all applications, the MCB tends to give much better overall protection against both fire and shock
risks than can be obtained with the use of normal HBC or rewirable fuses. MCB are available in
distribution-board units for final circuit protection.
One main disadvantages of the MCB is the initial cost, although it has the long-term advantage.

Back up protection or sub-

main

Main protection
M.C.B.

M.C.C.B.

Final circuit
M.C.B.

M.C.B.

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Electrical Installation Systems

DISCRIMINATION:

It is defined as the ability of fuses and circuit-breakers to interfere with the supply to a faulty circuit
without interfering with the source of supply to the remaining healthy circuits in the system.

Discrimination requires a larger fuse nearer to the source of supply and will remain unaffected by fault
currents which would cause a smaller fuse, further from the course to supply, to operate.

Circuit fuse

B
C
20A

A
Plug top with 13A
fuse Appliance

Distribution board

When more than one fuse protects a circuit (shown in figure above), it is clearly sensible that the
correct fuse should blow under fault conditions.

If there is a fault on the appliance, fuse C will blow. If fuse B blown, although it would break the
circuit to the faulty appliance, it would unnecessarily render the whole redial circuit dead.

If fuse A blown, instead of B or C, all circuits from the distribution board would be disconnected.

It is essential for the un-blown fuse to continue to operate and to give satisfactory service after the fault
has been removed and the blown fuse replace.

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Electrical Installation Systems

PROTECTION AGAINST EARTH LEAKAGE CURRENTS.

Earth Leakage current:-

It is a current which flows to earth, or to extraneous conduction parts, in a circuit which is electrically
sound.

Wherever there is a live supply, there is always a risk that metalwork not intended to carry a current
(e.g. metal casing of a cooker) may come into contact with a live conductor. If this happens, the
current in the live conductor will leak in the metalwork that may result to:

1. The risk of shock to a person touching the metalwork.

2. The risk of fire due to a heavy currents flowing undetected.

Methods of Earth-Leakage Protection:

The methods recommended to prevent the danger of earth-leakage currents are as follows:

1. Enclosing live parts in insulation to provide basic protection against electric shock. This is
called basic insulation.
2. The use of double insulation, now increasingly used for portable appliance such as electric
shavers, hair dryers, etc.
3. Earthing exposed metalwork.
4. Isolation and separation of metalwork from live parts, such that there is no way that it can come
into contact with live conductors.

Earthing of Exposed Metalwork:

This purpose earthing is to prevent all metalwork associated with an installation from becoming ‘live’
and reaching a potential that would cause the risk of electric shock to human being and to reduce the
risk of fire.

Let us consider what will happen under earth-fault condition as illustrated in figure below, if a non-
earthed metalwork or casing not intended to carry a current become live when the phase conductor
carrying a current touches it, the persons touching that metalwork may receive a shock while he is in
contact with the general mass of the earth.

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Electrical Installation Systems

Figure 1 – shows a non-earthed metalwork.

The person may received an electric shock.

However, if the metalwork was effectively connected to earth by means of a suitable conductor as
shown in figure 2, under earth-fault condition, the conductor would prevent the earth-leakage current
from flowing into the person’s body. The current would just flow directly into earth.

The person may not receive an electric shock.

An efficient earthing arrangement is an essential part of every electrical installation. The reason for
having properly-earthed metalwork in an installation is to provide a low-resistance discharge path for
earth leakage currents which would otherwise prove fatal to any person touching the metalwork
associated with a fault circuit.

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