Need Info about "pump handle" on High Power Circuit Boxes
Need Info about "pump handle" on High Power Circuit Boxes
(OP)
Hi, everyone, and thanks in advance for your answer. I had someone ask me something recently, and I didn't have the exact answer for him, and it's driving me crazy, because a whole day of google and internet searching didn't help. The question is: On an Emergency Powercircuit box or standard High Power circuit box/breaker panel, is anyone familiar with a "handle" that you have to "pump up" 3 times, in order to build up a charge, BEFORE you throw the Main Switch? I'm trying to find out exactly WHAT this "pump" does, WHY it is there, what FUNCTION it serves. My guess was that it charges a capacitor, but I couldn't understand- why you would need to build up a charge, when you have 220 VAC, or 440, whatever, coming in, ready to flow?





RE: Need Info about "pump handle" on High Power Circuit Boxes
William
RE: Need Info about "pump handle" on High Power Circuit Boxes
RE: Need Info about "pump handle" on High Power Circuit Boxes
RE: Need Info about "pump handle" on High Power Circuit Boxes
Watch the original Jurassic Park movie. Towards the end, Laura Dern's character is required to get to some maintenance building and reset the main circuit breaker for the entire island. She pumps the handle 3 times and pushes the "Close" button, bringing the power grid back on line. If it was feeding the whole island, that was probably a very high capacity breaker so it is unlikely that she could have closed it without that spring charge mechanism.
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Nikola Tesla