Iec

[pbakhtiar]

Anyone has any knowledge of the IEC codes? I'm wondering what's the difference between a 1Pole and a 2Pole circuit breaker. Also the difference between a 3Pole and a 4Pole breaker.
Thanks

 

[sgunsel]

Number of poles?

 

[pbakhtiar]

It couldn't get more obvious than that! (o;
What I meant was for example for a 3 phase circuit why sometimes they use a 4 pole breaker. Obviously 3 are for the hots but what is the 4th one for? Or they sometime use a 2 pole for a single phase. I know 1 of the pole is of course for the Hot, but what is the other one used for?

 

[Dennis Alwon]

There are systems that use 4 pole breakers where the neutral is used on the fourth pole-- not sure if it is in this country or overseas.

There are also dp single phase breakers that are 4 poles wide.

 

[richwaskowitz]

I run into IEC and German stuff all the time. I do know this... if you don't pass the same current through ALL poles of a multi-pole breaker but leave one or more unconnected, it will trip due to the imbalance. When opening 2 poles (for example 220 VAC ungrounded supply) of a 3 pole breaker, one of the conductors passes through the center pole then again through the 3rd pole. They do this all the time.