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Protective Devices: Unit 203: Electrical Installations Technology

The document discusses various types of protective devices used in electrical installations including fuses, circuit breakers, and residual current devices. It describes their components, advantages, disadvantages, and standards. Protective devices are used to prevent overcurrent and earth leakage faults from damaging wiring and equipment.

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Kyle Munro
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43 views20 pages

Protective Devices: Unit 203: Electrical Installations Technology

The document discusses various types of protective devices used in electrical installations including fuses, circuit breakers, and residual current devices. It describes their components, advantages, disadvantages, and standards. Protective devices are used to prevent overcurrent and earth leakage faults from damaging wiring and equipment.

Uploaded by

Kyle Munro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Unit 203: Electrical installations technology

Protective devices
Protective devices
Faults will generally cause one or both of the following to
occur:
•overcurrent
•earth leakage.
Overcurrent:
A current exceeding the rated value. For conductors the
rated value is the current‑carrying capacity.

Overcurrent can be further subdivided into two categories:


•overload current
•fault current.
Protective devices

Earth leakage (protective conductor current):


Electric current appearing in a protective
conductor, such as leakage current or electric
current resulting from an insulation fault.
Protective devices
BS3036 semi‑enclosed fuse

Available sizes are:


5A (white)
15A (blue)
20A (yellow)
30A (red)
45A (green).
Protective devices
Advantages:
•simple to check if blown
•low cost to replace fuse element
•no moving parts.
Disadvantages:
•danger of being repaired with wrong size wire
•deteriorate with age
•circuit cannot be quickly restored
•cannot break large fault currents
•danger if replaced on faulty circuit (melting wire)
•fusing factor of around 1.8–2.0 means that they cannot
be guaranteed to operate up to twice the rated current
that is flowing. As a result, cables protected by them
must have a larger current‑carrying capacity.
Protective devices
BS88‑3:2010 cartridge fuses (replacing BS1361)
Advantages:
•small physical size
•no mechanical moving parts
•accurate current rating
•not liable to deterioration with age
•fusing factor 1.6–1.9.

Disadvantages:
•more expensive than rewireable
•can be shorted by silver foil
•cannot break large fault currents.
Protective devices
BS88‑2:2010 fuses (replacing BS88‑2 and BS88‑2.1)
Advantages:
•no mechanical moving parts
•declared rating is very accurate
•operation is very quick
•with gM fuses you can distinguish
between a persistent fault and a
transient fault such as the large starting
current taken by motors
•reliable – it can break large current
safely
•fusing factor 1.25 – 1.70.

Disadvantage:
•expensive.
Protective devices

BS1362 cartridge fuses


• Especially for use in the standard UK BS1363 13 ampere plug top.
• This cartridge fuse breaks a faulty circuit in the same way as other fuses.
• When the BS1363 plug was first introduced, there were five fuses in the
official BS1362 range (with their specified colour): 2 (blue), 5 (grey),
7 (black), 10 (yellow) and 13 (brown) amps.
• The current version, BS1362:1973, allows any fuse rating up to 13A, with 3
amp (coloured red) and 13 amp (coloured brown) as the preferred (but not
mandated) values when used in a plug.
• The purpose of the plug mounted fuse is to protect the flexible cord, not the
appliance itself.
Protective devices
Circuit breaker to BS EN 60898
Advantages:
•tripping characteristics, and therefore circuit
protection, are set by the installer
•circuit protection difficult to interfere with
•the circuit provides discrimination
•a faulty circuit may be easily and quickly
restored by an unskilled operator.

Disadvantage:
•they contain mechanical moving parts.
Protective devices
Circuit breaker to BS EN 60898
Circuit breakers’ two means of tripping:
•thermal trip that operates relatively slowly and is ideal for
detecting overload currents
•magnetic tripping device that operates very quickly and is ideal
for detecting fault currents.
Protective devices
Circuit breaker to
BS EN 60898
1. Box terminal
2. Thermal element
3. Magnetic hammer action solenoid
4. Arc chamber
5. Trip bar
6. Moving contact
7. Fixed contact
8. DIN clip
Protective devices
Circuit breaker to BS EN 60898
Protective devices
Residual current device (RCD) BS EN 61008
• In order to detect much smaller leakage
currents that could still be lethal to life,
an RCD must be used.
• An RCD compares the current flowing
out through the line conductor with the
current returning through the neutral; if
the current exceeds a predetermined
value, the device will trip and disconnect
the circuit.
• The rated value is referred to as the IΔn
and is usually rated in mA.
Protective devices
Residual current device (RCD) BS EN 61008
Protective devices
• RCDs do not give excess current
protection.
• RCDs are only capable of sensing current
imbalance through the current transformer
which would induce a current in the trip
coil.
• Earth faults (earth leakage) are the reason
a RCD would trip.
Protective devices
Residual current operated circuit breaker with
integral overcurrent protection (RCBO) BS EN 61009

• An RCBO is a combination of a
thermal‑magnetic circuit breaker and an
RCD.
• It allows earth fault protection to be
restricted to a single circuit.
• With most devices, two additional wires
must be connected in order for this
device to function.
• RCBOs are available in types B and C
but not in type D.
Glass fuses (Control fuses)
• Glass fuses are available in 2 sizes the
older 1¼inch and the newer 20mm.
• Both these types come in 2 types namely
quick blow and anti-surge (slow blow).
• Quick blow fuses are used to protect
electronics and other sensitive circuits.
• Anti-surge fuses are utilised for protection
of circuits with power supplies, where a
transformer would produce a current
inrush.
Quick Blow Fuse
Quick blow fuses are used
to protect sensitive circuits
for example printed circuit
boards. The current rating
of these devices are very
sensitive.

If a current surge was


applied to a PCB containing
transistors and/or
integrated printed circuit
chips it could cause major
damage to the circuit.
Anti-surge Fuse

• Used in circuits
where there may be
surges for example
power supplies with
transformers.

• These fuses will


allow a slight over
current for a limited
period of time
Unit 203: Electrical installations technology

The End

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