World's First Digital Circuit Breaker...

[Oren]

"3,000 times faster than the fastest mechanical breaker, this innovation could radically alter how we manage power."

Article:

[trader_4]

I haven't read PM for decades, but if this is representative of the crap they publish now, boy have they gone way downhill.

"This new breaker makes power easier to manage and 3000 times faster than the fastest mechanical breaker, marking one of the most radical advancements in power distribution since Thomas Edison, next to Nikola Tesla."

They are actually comparing this POS to Edison and Tesla? Really? I see no "breakthrough", it would seem to me that it's always been straightforward to build a solid state breaker using power semiconductors that would be thousands of times faster than a mechanical one. The obvious issues are, who the hell needs one in their house, it's going to cost many times more, and if you get hit with a surge, good chance you're going to need thirty new digital breakers, while mechanical ones likely survive.

I'm sure there are some applications that need breakers that are

3000 times faster than mechanical ones and I bet they already have them too. But those special apps are not what this is apparently for.

"Picture the fuse box in your basement, each switch assigned to different electrical components of your home. These switches are designed to break a circuit to prevent the overloaded wires in your wall from overheating and causing a fire. When this happens, you plod down to your mechanical room and flick the switches on again."

Yes, imagine that, a trip to the panel once every couple years on the rare occasion one trips. At least here. I suppose if you overload everything, it could be different. But then I'd say the solution to that is to fix the overloads, not make it so you can reset the breaker from your iPhone.

"Now multiply that simple system in your home to city high rises and industrial buildings, which might have 250 circuit breakers on any given floor, each one ranging from 15 to 4000 amps at higher voltages. At this scale, the limitations and dangers of a manually controlled power system become much more evident—and costly."

Really? Industry wants high amp breakers that you can reset from a phone? Limitations? What happens when the Russians hack in and turn off your power? I guess in situations where it's not so easy to get to breakers, this could have an advantage, but I've never lived anywhere that was a problem.

“Instead of using mechanics to switch the power, we apply digital inputs," Kennedy told Popular Mechanics. “Now I have no moving parts. Now I have the ability to connect things like iPhones and iPads for remote power management, which increases safety and improves efficiency. I can set the distribution panel to a schedule so the flow of power is seamless, unlimited, and shifts between sources automatically. You literally wouldn’t notice. The lights wouldn’t even flicker.”

Yes indeed. Silly me, I never scheduled the power distribution here. It already is seamless and essentially unlimited. Switching between sources? WTF? Even homes that have solar, it is already seemless and it doesn't switch, it's the solar is tied to the grid. Obviously I've been doing something wrong all along. What's also notable here is the above gibberish BS is given as a direct quote from the CEO of the company.

Quite an amazing find. Wonder why they don't say how much this costs? About all I can see this being good for is for time of day savings, if your electric company offers it. You could use it to only activate the electric water heater at night, or charge the car at night, for a lower rate. But even there it's questionable. Isn't it better to have the decision made at the car charger? You set it to charge primarily at night, but if you come home empty and want to charge now, you can easily do it by pushing a button at the charger in the garage? If this POS thing has it shut off at the panel, then you have to use your phone to turn it on?

[gfretwell]

flow of power is seamless, unlimited, and shifts between sources automatically. You literally wouldn’t notice. The lights wouldn’t even flicker.”

That function was in our switcher power supplies 40 years ago. They would shut down in a half cycle ... at 400 hz.