Switchboard/Panelboard Dimensions vs SCCR rating

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petersonra said:
...There is a premium for 65k breakers but it is not as much as it used to be. it used to be it was a big number but the premium has dropped quite a bit over the years.
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Decades ago now I worked for a German company called Klockner Moeller (now owned by Eaton), who invented the "current limiting circuit breaker". The standard breakers were rated 35kAIC, then you had the upgrade to 65kAIC and for them at that time, a fused breaker was used for 100kAIC. But as an insider, I knew that there was ZERO difference between a 35kAIC rated breaker and a 65kAIC rated breaker, other than the little plastic sticker applied to the front with the rating on it. It was WAY too expensive to make and stock two different product lines, so they were ALL built as 65kA breakers. So if we were building a project and we were out of 35k breakers, we substituted the 65k ones and internally, our cost was exactly the same.

Years later I worked for an OEM and we used a LOT of ABB breakers. We had a multi-million$ project where everything needed to be listed at 50kA or higher, so we had to buy the 65kAIC rated breakers from ABB and because they were not on our negotiated pricing agreement, ABB was shafting us. I told the owner of my company my K-M story, he was pissed. He called the ABB-US president and wanted them to provide the 65k rated ones for the same price, he went on and on about how they had different arc chutes, different contacts etc. etc. Then my boss called me into the room with one of each breaker disassembled, showing that they had the EXACT same parts inside. He said he would check into it and the next day, called back and admitted what I already knew; it was too expensive to make TWO versions, so they too only made the 65kA version and just changed the sticker if you didn't want to pay for it. We got our way.
 
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