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Ken Heaton
 
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Default Use of AC breakers as switches

AC circuit breakers are either rated for switching duty or they aren't. As
Blue Sea Systems says "Combines switching and circuit protection into a
single device" &" Rated Switch Cycles = 10,000@rated amperage and voltage"
on the page for their AC circuit breakers they are rated for switching duty.
No problem.

http://www.bluesea.com/product.asp?P...407&l1=7407&l2
--
Ken Heaton & Anne Tobin
Cape Breton Island, Canada
kenheaton at eastlink dot ca

"GBM" wrote in message
...
Our boat has a small Blue Seas 8027 AC distribution panel with main two
pole
breaker and 6 circuit capability.

One circuit feeds the Truecharge 10TB charger and another will feed a hot
water heater (1200watt). Others only feed outlets.

The Truecharge doesn't have an integral on-off switch . So, as with DC
panels, the breaker is used as a switch.

When I install the hot water heater, I was planning on hooking it direct
to
the panel and using the breaker as the switch. But, then I seemed to
recall
that breakers shouldn't be used as switches on 120V systems?

But thinking about our house that has electric baseboard heating. There
are
no disconnect switches other than the thermostats and most of them have no
OFF position. The water heater will have a thermostat too!

The water heater manual shows a fuse on the heater side of a double pole
switch (switches both sides of AC). I could install a switch between the
heater and the breaker panel. But perhaps the breaker and the double pole
main disconnect switch serve the same purpose?

Then there is the charger which has no separate switch.

GBM