Operating Power Breakers

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brother said:
How frequent is it recommended to exercise or operate low voltage power breakers? Tried to find info online but having some trouble. Some say they should be opened and closed (turned on and off) at least once a year, others say every 3 years.
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I have a complete set of the old Westinghouse 4 volume Electrical maintenance hints and, get this, it says frequently which was a lot of help. (w) made the type DS metal clad air circuit breaker. But I tried.
 
Each specific breaker type will have it's own OEM recommended maintenence intervals, and just opening and closing them does not do much for reliability. About 20% of failures are found during opening/closing per EPRI failure data.

Here is the ANSI/NETA recommended intervals for inspection, maintenence, and testing. (Well never mind, too large to upload here, PM me if you want me to send it to you)
 
brother said:
How frequent is it recommended to exercise or operate low voltage power breakers? Tried to find info online but having some trouble. Some say they should be opened and closed (turned on and off) at least once a year, others say every 3 years.
Click to expand...

Your defintion is somewhat ambigous, but for ~120-480V, ~15-1600A Molded Case Circuit Breakers the general recommendation is - from manufacutrers - that they are mechanically excercised once a year. (Having saidthat what was the last time you have turned your breakers on/off in your home? I know I haven't.....)
 
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