Reconditioned Low-Voltage Circuit Breakers - Considering Electrical Safety for Application in Industry

For many years, manufacturing plants in the process industries, along with hospitals, schools and commercial building owners have installed used circuit breakers in panelboards, switchboards, switchgear and motor control centers with reconditioned replacements. Often, due to the vintage of existing electrical equipment, reconditioned circuit breaker replacements are the only available option. Is this practice safe? Some recognized industry standards such as the Professional Electrical Apparatus Reconditioning League (PEARL) ANSI Accredited Electrical Equipment Reconditioning Standard (EERS) say yes. For Molded Case Circuit Breakers, the recently published U.S. National Electric Code, National Fire Protection Association NFPA70-2020^® says no. This paper reviews applicable global and regional industry standards for circuit breakers and offer clarity around many words including rebuilt, refurbished, remanufactured, reconditioned and renovated and terms such as field-modified. The paper briefly reviews design and test standards for new 600-volt class molded-case, insulated case and low-voltage power circuit breakers followed by standards covering accepted practices for reconditioned products, with focused guidance on proper application to assure safe and reliable system circuit protection.

I. Introduction

While attending an IEEE Industry Applications Society Chapter meeting, this paper's corresponding author entered into a discussion with a local electrical contractor regarding the company's annual maintenance agreement with an area hospital. The contractor explained that part of the work during routine electrical maintenance included replacing circuit breakers in the hospital's electrical panels that were deemed not to be functional or approaching the end of their life. Because hundreds of replacement circuit breakers were installed, a pallet of reconditioned units, including a variety of ratings and manufacturers had been shipped in from a local reconditioning company to be installed as replacements. Some questions arose regarding this practice. These included: •

How did the contractor's electricians determine the existing circuit breakers needed to be replaced?

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How could the contractor be sure the reconditioned replacements would perform when required to interrupt a fault?