Can somebody explain this to me?
Jon
That's not the correct picture.
Cheers
-- John G
-- John G ======= Thank you for your responses. If that's not what it is, what is it? The coiled wire goes to "PANEL NEUTRAL" One screw connector goes to "LOAD NEUTRAL" The other screw connector goes to "LOAD POWER" A third screw goes to "STRIP" Circuit breaker and ground fault circuit interrupter, Current Interrupting Rating Max RMS Sym??? 120 Volts 10 000 Amps wtf is this? If the breaker plugs into a leg, does it have a second "LOAD POWER"? If it's rated for 10,000 amps, why does it say 15 amps on the trip switch?
A guess only:
15A is the normal rating / switch rating40A is the overload opening load
Find a data sheet........
The GFCI or Arc Fault function requires the breaker to monitor current in both the hot and neutral leads, so the breaker has terminals for both leads. The attached wire will connect to the neutral bus in the breaker panel. Power into the breaker is probably via the slot visible at the top rear of the breaker - a contact there slides over the hot bus in the panel.
The breaker is rated to safely interrupt 10,000 amps on a serious fault. During normal operation, it will carry 15 amps, but will trip at something a little over that.
In GE's catalog, this picture probably appears with a table listing several similar breakers of different ratings: 15A, 20A, 30A, 40A... The breakers all look the same, except for the number on the handle, so there is no need to show a picture of each one.
-- Peter Bennett, VE7CEI peterbb (at) telus.net GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca
it? Common?
It's only a picture they had.
It should say 40 amps, weird though.
An arc fault breaker, has the neutral connected directly to breaker, and the excess wire is the remaining neutral to box common ground.
Something like a common emitter to ground.
Greg
There should only be 2 screws. There is likely a "STRIP" line that shows how much insulation should be stripped off the wires.
The whole answer is good.
A minor quibble - to trip on an arc-fault a breaker would not likely need the neutral. AFCIs also include ground fault protection, usually at
30mA. The ground fault protection requires the neutral. (GFCIs trip at 5 mA.)
Expanding the answer - power systems have available fault current ratings. It is the current you can get with a solid short at the panel, or whatever. The panel, plus fuses or circuit breakers, had better be able to interrupt a short with that available current (otherwise they can blow up). Fuses, circuit breakers, and panels are rated for the available fault amps they can handle. It is a significant rating to consider in picking a part. Residential is not likely to be above
10,000A. Ratings up to 200,000 available fault amps are easy to find."RMS Sym" is symmetrical RMS available fault amps. Symmetrical means it is a normal AC waveform - it does not have a DC component.
Depending on where in the AC cycle the fault occurs, and the inductance of the AC supply, the fault may be quite asymmetrical, with a DC component that decays in a few cycles. The breaker can handle a somewhat asymmetrical 10,000A fault.
It seems like the Amazon site could at least show a picture of a normal breaker, not an AFCI. An AFCI (also GFCI) has the neutral pigtail and test button.
-- bud--
It shows a GFI breaker, but the part is not a GFI breaker at all.
Cheers
it? Common?
I hope you don't wire panels? At least with that description.
The neutral wire that is hanging on the breaker indeed does connect to the local neutral bus bar however, that breaker also has a terminal on it for the neutral wire that leaves the box for that circuit.
Both leads, L1 L2/N must pass through the breaker so that it can detect load balance. This also means that this circuit can not allow its legs to be shared unevenly in any way.
You may notice in some packages they coil the N lead wire? It is suggested in a tight closet you may want to keep coil intact up to the N bus bar, this is due to other wires laying around and the coiling action is believed to help in reducing cross talk noise from other legs that could impede the performance of the sensor in the breaker. I guess one could say it acts as a RF choke not allowing noise spurs to propagate over as easy.
Now, we did have one case in our plant where a sub panel was reported to not be reliable using Square D fault breakers. I had a look at the panel when they removed the cover and it was a typical wire mess found in most cases. I made a suggestion that maybe they should organize the N leads better and put the coil back in them. They did do that on a weekend and did a nice looking job at it. As far as know the breakers now work properly. I can't say for sure if was due to keeping the N leads coiled or taking all the twisted matter out of there?
Jamie
That page is almost entirely wrong. Assuming the part is a GE THQL1140. Also _very_ wrong are many of the answers you got here! Of course you don't know which to believe, including mine, so go to the GE web site and get it from the horse's mouth, so to speak.
Are you actually looking for a 40A, 120v breaker? If so, why? That is an almost useless breaker. Any application needing that much power (4800 watts) would be 240v. And 40A 120v would need 8-2 wire, which would be very difficult to find. And expensive. And difficult to work with.
Bob
UTF8&m=3DA2OWTFZVIG7K1P
OK a summary and some more.
The GE THQL series circuit breakers are GFCI type, hence the pigtail and the two terminals for the load. And test button. By part number A THQL 1140 is a 40 A breaker. The one pictured would be = a THQL 1115 a 15 A breaker. The 10,000 A rating is fault current interrupting capability.
?-)
A wink meaning you are kidding?
THQL breakers are full width [not half width, which are THQP]. The line includes single pole, multipole (multiwidth), GFCI and AFCI breakers.
The OP's linked THQL1140 breaker is an ordinary 1 pole, 40A. (A single pole 40A breaker is rather uncommon - I agree with Bob E.)
The picture at the top of the OP's linked site is an AFCI (you can read it just above the test button). It would be a THQL1115AF2P.
Ignoring the amp rating, the picture does not match a THQL1140 breaker. Showing a picture of an AFCI to illustrate an ordinary breaker does not seem real smart.
-- bud--
Yep
not like this information is classified or anything...
you
and
be a
What wink???
The top line above. I figure it is an emoticon. I am not so good at reading some of them.
No, not a wink. I just enjoy working my way through questions. Brain exercize trying to keep it limber and toned.
?-)
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