What is the difference between an intelligent circuit breaker and an air switch?

With the rapid development of China's power grid construction, digital substations have become a hot spot for construction and research. The core of digital substation is the intelligence of primary equipment and the networking of secondary equipment. For the extremely important electric primary equipment such as the circuit breaker, its intelligent realization is of great significance. The intelligentization of the circuit breaker lies in the real-time monitoring of the running state, the accuracy of the on-off, the intelligent control and the network of information transmission.

What is an air switch

An air switch, also known as an air circuit breaker, is a type of circuit breaker. It mainly functions as a short circuit and overload protection. It is also equipped with leakage protection, which is widely used due to its sensitive response, moderate price and convenient installation.

In the home, because the power load is relatively small, even if the most serious short circuit occurs, as long as the rated current is appropriate, the air switch can meet the requirements. If the circuit breaker with the leakage protection function is selected, it is safer and more reliable. Used in power distribution and industrial power, the ability to pass and cut off current and arc extinguishing is far better than that of air switches suitable for use in homes, and the special materials used in vacuum switches make their insulation performance very high. It can be used in high-voltage circuits. In addition, vacuum switches are often used in high-current and high-voltage systems. Therefore, vacuum switches with small rated currents suitable for home use are usually not designed and manufactured.

What is a smart circuit breaker

Circuit breakers are divided into high-voltage circuit breakers and low-voltage circuit breakers according to their use range. The division of high and low voltage lines is relatively vague. Generally, 3kV or more is called high-voltage electrical equipment.

The intelligent circuit breaker realizes the electronic operation, the mechanical energy is the capacitor energy storage, the mechanical transmission is the direct drive of the frequency converter through the motor, the mechanical moving parts are reduced to one, the reliability of the mechanical system is improved, and the intelligent circuit breaker has a digital interface, which can The position information, status information, and the closing and closing commands are transmitted through the network. The life and reliability of the electronic circuit in the control loop will become the key to the engineering application of the intelligent circuit breaker technology.

So what is the difference between the two?

1, the voltage level is different: the general air switch is suitable for voltage levels below 500V, and the circuit breaker can usually be applied to various voltage levels above 220V.

2, the arc extinguishing medium and the way is different: the arc extinguishing medium and method of the circuit breaker not only have air circuit breaker, but also vacuum circuit breaker, less oil circuit breaker, multi-oil circuit breaker, sulfur hexafluoride circuit breaker and so on.

3, the difference of supporting equipment: Generally speaking, compared with the air switch, the measurement of the circuit breaker, the logic and the equipment of the executing part are more complicated than the circuit breaker.

4, the ability to interrupt the current is different: the general circuit breaker can withstand the load and short-circuit current is larger than the air switch.