Types of Circuit Breakers

Each type of circuit breaker has its own advantages and disadvantages. The construction and working of these circuit breakers with special emphasis on the way the arc extinction is facilitated are discussed in the next article.The classification based on other criteria are given below,


According to their services the circuit breaker can be divided as:

• 1) Outdoor circuit breaker
• 2) Indoor circuit breaker

According to the operating mechanism of circuit breaker they can be divided as:

• 1) Spring operated circuit breaker
• 2) Pneumatic circuit breaker
• 3) Hydraulic circuit breaker

According to the voltage level of installation types of circuit breaker are referred as:

• 1) High voltage circuit breaker (> 72 kV)
• 2) Medium voltage circuit breaker (1-72 kV)
• 3) Low voltage circuit breaker (< 1 kV)