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Reprinted with permission from the Conference Record of the 42nd Petroleum and Chemical Industry Conference, Denver, Colorado, September 11-13, 1995, pages 227-230.
ABSTRACT
Many energy efficient low voltage motors exhibit first half
cycle instantaneous inrush current values greater than the
National Electrical Codes 13 times motor full load amperes
maximum permissible setting for instantaneous trip circuit
breakers. The alternate use of an inverse time circuit breaker could lead to inadequate protection if the breaker does
not have adjustable instantaneous settings. Recent innovations in digital solid state trip unit technology have made
available an inverse time, adjustable instantaneous trip circuit
breaker in 15A to 150A ratings. This allows the instantaneous pickup to be adjusted to a value slightly above motor
inrush so that low level faults will be cleared instantaneously
while avoiding nuisance tripping at startup. Applications,
settings and comparisons are discussed.
INTRODUCTION
More than 30 years ago the molded case circuit breaker
industry developed a line of motor short circuit protective
devices or instantaneous trip breakers that improved on
the thermal magnetic or inverse time breaker in two distinct ways. First, the instantaneous only breaker (sometimes
called a motor circuit protector) had no long time or thermal trip. It was deemed redundant since the overload relay
or heater was providing this long time thermal function.
Secondly, the instantaneous or magnetic pickup was made
adjustable so it could be set slightly above the motor inrush.
This was a significant improvement over the fixed instantaneous thermal magnetic breaker.
Many years ago the National Electrical Code[2] established
a maximum setting for this instantaneous trip breaker of
seven times motor FLA, the theory being that value was just
above the typical 6X locked rotor current. Some years later
an exception permitted increasing the setting to 1300% of
FLA, but only if it could be demonstrated the motor could
not be started with the 700% setting. Finally, the instantaneous inrush phenomenon was recognized!
H. L. BRADFIELD, P.E.
This paper will address some of the work done in the industry to serve these needs and, in particular, how the use of an
electronic detection inverse time circuit breaker can be
appropriately applied when an instantaneous trip breaker
would nuisance trip.
MOTOR FLA
10
1
INVERSE TIME
BREAKER WITH
ADJUSTABLE
INSTANTANEOUS
SETTINGS
.1
LRA
TIME IN SECONDS
INSTANTANEOUS
TRIP BREAKER
See Figure 2
MOTOR
INRUSH
.01
100
OVERLOAD RELAY
Which Provides The Better Protection? For a standard efficiency motor an instantaneous trip breaker will generally
provide better short-circuit protection than a fixed instantaneous, inverse time breaker. If, however, the transient first
cycle inrush of an energy efficient motor exceeds the 13
times FLA value, an inverse time breaker is the better
choice, but only if the instantaneous is adjustable.
10
100
1000
10,000
1000
instantaneous breaker,
on the other hand,
interferes with the
motor inrush at the
0.01 second time and
may cause nuisance tripping unless the actual
pick up value is to the
extreme right side of
the band width, which
cannot be guaranteed.
CONCLUSION
The problem of nuisance tripping of instantaneous trip
breakers applied per the NEC limitations has been analyzed.
A solution using an inverse time circuit breaker with
adjustable instantaneous settings is offered. The advantages
REFERENCES
[1] R. G. Bartheld and S. F. Farag, Energy efficient motor coordi
nation, in Conf. Rec. 1985 Annu. Meet. IEEE Pulp and Paper Tech.
Conf., pp. 65-67, (85CH2129-5).
[2] National Electrical Code, Nat. Fire Protection Assoc., Quincy, MA,
NFPA-70.
[3] Francis A. Scheda, Transient inrush current in high-efficiency
and standard motors, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. IA-22, no. 1,
pp.145-147, 1986.
[4] Thomas J. Woginrich, High-inrush currents and premium effi
ciency motors, EC&M Mag., p. 8, Jan. 1994.
[5] R. L. Smith, 93 NEC change is dangerous, EC&M Mag., p.
12, Mar. 1994.
[6] R. L. Nailen, Motor inrush current: what does it really mean?
Electrical Apparatus Mag., pp. 56-60, Jun. 1986.
[7] D. D. MacDonald and R. A. Morris, private communication,
1995
DER-019