Confused about AC or DC rated breakers? This explains it pretty well!

[Rednecktek]

So I know when I started learning I didn't understand why AC and DC breakers were a thing. Having primarily worked with AC my whole life, I thought breakers were breakers. Then I started seeing all over the place about "Make sure they're DC rated breaker" and "Breaker Timing" and the such.

Well, I came across a video a couple days ago that really visually shows the HUGE difference between AC and DC breakers and why they're rated the way they are.

The audio is really quiet so if you have to turn up your speakers, remember to turn them down when you're done. ?

 

[rodrick]

seeing that arc make you think maybe those class t fuses aren’t that expensive

 

[tigerwillow1]

That arc was with a ~200 volt source, and will be a lot shorter with 60 volts or less, where the class T fuses generally come into play. I'm not meaning to foo-foo the added difficulty of safely breaking a DC circuit, it's just that all of the videos I've seen posted about breakers smoking and spitting fire are using either multi-hundred voltages, or not stating the voltage, and are exaggerating what happens when breaking 60 volts or less.

 

[SSC00]

So I know when I started learning I didn't understand why AC and DC breakers were a thing. Having primarily worked with AC my whole life, I thought breakers were breakers. Then I started seeing all over the place about "Make sure they're DC rated breaker" and "Breaker Timing" and the such.

Well, I came across a video a couple days ago that really visually shows the HUGE difference between AC and DC breakers and why they're rated the way they are.

The audio is really quiet so if you have to turn up your speakers, remember to turn them down when you're done. ?

wow. this was very informative. made me understand why DC and AC breakers are different. Now where to get a dc breaker.... lol