On Tuesday, 23 Jan 1996, Andy Banta wrote:
> An overused breaker will invariably trip to the fault of caution.
Which is annoying as hell. My father's cabin had a water heater with
no switch other than the breaker. We turned off the breaker every time we
went home. After a while, the water heater would kick the breaker at odd
times for no apparent reason. Waking up on a frosty morning with no hot
water is not what we had in mind when we remodeled the place. The
electrician my father hired ought to have put a switch on the circuit.
> I don't mean to sound careless to any extent of imagination, but I've
> never been privy to any electrical fires caused by breakers being used
> as switches.
Nor did I suggest that you have.
You say it they "invariably" fail safe. How do you know? Because nobody
you know has had a fire?
I do not know whether it is possible for overuse of a breaker to cause
it to stick closed. I have absolutely no interest in finding out. I do
know that having them pop open when they ought not can be a definite pain
and is reason enough itself not to abuse them.
> When making recommendations to reasonably educated people about how to
> prepare a workshop, I'd much rather give practical, common sense
> information
So would I. You've known me long enough to know that.
>than the Chicken Little worst-case-scenario view.
I really don't recall screaming that the sky was falling.
A circuit breaker is not a switch and ought not be used as one.
Phil Ethier <ethier@freenet.msp.mn.us>
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