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liquidspaceman's avatar
liquidspaceman
Explorer
Jun 08, 2013

Any Drawbacks to Using Circuit Breaker instead of Fuse?

Hello, I recently wired up a 400 watt inverter near my dinette that runs directly off the battery. I did use an inline fuse rated at 40 amps but was wondering if there was any drawback to using a c...
MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Jun 08, 2013
I love to for example have a breaker rated for the load, then have a fuse rated 10% greater for security. A breaker has a Jekyll & Hyde personality according to temperature. They will carry a substantially greater amperage load when cool.

A 40 amp breaker can carry as much as 55 amps at 0C

And 30 amperes at 50C

And 20 amperes at 100C (underhood temperatures)

delcity.net has temp de-ratings for automotive type breakers.

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