Micro Eng wrote: > Talking to a customer the other day, he mentioned that in Europe, the > breakers in panel boards are already derated. Meaning, here in the states, > NEC requires that a breaker that is rated 30A, be derated to 80% or the > capacity of 24A for continious duty. But in Europe, a 30A breaker can > actually provide 30A continious, no derated value. Is this true? Now of > course, this doesn't say that a 30A breaker in the states can't run the > full 30A continious, just by code you are not supposed to. I'm not a licensed electrician, but I think the NEC is actually saying something slightly different: When you add up the loads on the circuit (following the procedures they outline for various types of intermittent loads), the total continuous load should be no more than 80% of the circuit's rating. They aren't just talking about the circuit breaker, but also about all the wiring and other fixtures associated with the circuit. They simply don't want to see any circuit running at 100% all the time. -- Dave Tweed -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body