Circuit Breakers DC/AC rating

[Conrad, Robert]

I just bought a bunch of 10A circuit breakers from Digikey. They are going
to be used on a 120V AC line. Problem is that they all have 35V DC printed
on the side. Will they still work? I didn't know there where DC and AC
breakers. I thought they worked like fuses where amps where the only
triggering factor.

 

[Nick Hull]

In article <vvmbcq37nog2c5@corp.supernews.com>,
"Conrad, Robert" <robertc> wrote:

I just bought a bunch of 10A circuit breakers from Digikey. They are going
to be used on a 120V AC line. Problem is that they all have 35V DC printed
on the side. Will they still work? I didn't know there where DC and AC
breakers. I thought they worked like fuses where amps where the only
triggering factor.

DC is much harder to break than AC because the AC extinguishes the arc.
If it's good for 35vdc it's probably OK for 120vac but I'd hate to take
it higher.

--
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[Peter Bennett]

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 14:50:02 -0700, "Conrad, Robert" <robertc> wrote:

I just bought a bunch of 10A circuit breakers from Digikey. They are going
to be used on a 120V AC line. Problem is that they all have 35V DC printed
on the side. Will they still work? I didn't know there where DC and AC
breakers. I thought they worked like fuses where amps where the only
triggering factor.

You must use breakers rated for 120VAC or higher to protect 120V
circuits.

Breakers, fuses, and switches all have maximum voltage ratings - if
you exceed these ratings, the device may arc over, rather than
switching (or blowing) cleanly.



--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
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