Re: Headlight Circuit Breaker Question
Posted by gone1951 On 2009/8/24 15:33:29
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The reason I ask is because I read in a thread on another forum from a guy who has electrical engineering in his background that it is ok to use a 12 volt 30amp breaker on a 6 volt system.
With my electronics background I agree with the above. The overload protection provided by a circuit breaker or a fuse is there to protect the wire from becoming the fuse in the case of a short. If you overload a circuit that does not have some sort of protection the wire itself will get hot and possibly catch fire. Here we go again about 6 and 12 volts. It's the current that blows the fuse or trips the breaker. 30 amps is 30 amps no matter what the voltage is. Granted all other things being equal if you double the voltage the current will also double however What blows a fuse or a breaker is the current not the applied voltage.
By the way the voltage rating on a fuse (ie. 10amp/250volts)Means that the fuse will completely open up with 250 volts across it when the 10 amps is exceeded. In other words don't use this fuse to fuse voltages exceeding 250 volts. You can use a fuse rated for 250 volts on your 6 volt light circuit with out any problem.
The following quote is said very well. This is what I was trying to say.
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The arc generated at 12 v when breaker opened would be a bit more substantial and hotter than one at 6v because of the extra voltage pushing it and might cause the contacts to weld or pit if too close together.
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