Formerly imperial ratings were used for fuses and circuit breakers, but the international Renard ratings have now been added and will supersede them.
Fuse manufacturers are still using the imperial sizes while circuit breaker manufacturers have mostly changed to the new ratings. An equivalence chart is shown above.
The miniature circuit breaker (MCB) is now widely used and overcomes all the problems associated with ordinary fuses. It is a small, sophisticated unit affording a much higher level of protection than an ordinary fuse. It is tamper-proof and the unit involved is easily identified when one has tripped (the switch moves to the ‘off’ position). Most importantly, MCBs cannot be reset if the fault still exists; this eliminates the foolish and highly dangerous practice of putting in the wrong fuse wire or cartridge just to get things ‘conveniently’ working again for the time being. Read the rest of this entry »
