6 Adjustable Tripping

Settings of a Circuit Breaker

You MUST Understand
By Edvard | June, 10th 2016 | 26 comments | Save to PDF
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Home / Technical Articles / 6 Adjustable Tripping Settings of a Circuit Breaker You MUST Understand
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Basic tripping settings of CB

There are (at least) six basic adjustable tripping settings (functions) you
really should understand in order to fully understand how circuit breaker actually
works.
6 Adjustable Tripping Settings of a Circuit Breaker You MUST Know
All these adjustable functions actually shape the time-current curve of a circuit
breaker and allows proper tripping according to the network parameters and
also the proper coordinationbetween upstream and downstream devices.

Note that modern circuit breakers (MCCB, ACB) mostly have an electronic
tripping unitwhich is much more advanced comparing to these explained here,
but the basics are the same, very same.

So, let’s start with explanation!

1. Continuous Amps (Ir)

2. Long-Time Delay
3. Short-Time Pickup
4. Short-Time Delay
5. Instantaneous Pickup
6. Ground Fault Pickup
Circuit breaker adjustable tripping functions
The below time-current curve reflects one possible setup for a 1200 ampere
circuit breaker with a nominal (maximum continuous ampere) rating of
1000 amps. This time-current curve will be the basis for discussing adjustable
tripping settings of the circuit breakers.
Time-current curve of a circuit breaker
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1. Continuous Amps (Ir)

Continuous Amps (Ir) varies the level of current the circuit breaker will carry
without tripping. Ir is a percentage of the circuit breaker’s nominal rating (In).
Continuous amps can be adjusted from 20 to 100 percent of the circuit
breaker’s nominal rating.

For example, a 1000 amp breaker can be changed from 1000 amps to 800
amps by adjusting the breaker continuous amps setting to 80%.
 Continuous current
[Amps]

Go back to CB tripping settings ↑

2. Long-Time Delay
Long-time delay causes the breaker to wait a certain amount of time to allow
temporary inrush currents, such as those encountered when starting a motor,
to pass without tripping.
The adjustment is from 2.2 to 27 seconds at six times the continuous amps
(Ir) setting.

As shown below, the long-time delay effects the position of an I2T slope. This
means that lower levels of current will allow the breaker to remain online for
longer periods of time.

Long time delay

tripping settings

Go back to CB tripping settings ↑

3. Short-Time Pickup
Short-time pickup is used for selective tripping. The short-time pickup
function determines the amount of current the breaker will carry for a short
period of time, allowing downstream protective devices to clear short-circuits
without tripping the upstream device.

Short-time pickup is adjustable from 1.5 to 10 times the trip unit ampere
setting (Ir).

For example, a 1000 ampere frame can be adjusted to trip anywhere from
1500 to 10,000 amps. The switch also has an “OFF” position to eliminate short-
time pickup and short-time delay.
 Short-time pickup
used for selective tripping

Go back to CB tripping settings ↑

4. Short-Time Delay
Short-time delay, used in conjunction with short-time pickup, controls the time
involved in postponing a short-time pickup trip.

There are two modes: fixed time, or I2T ramp. Fixed time is adjustable from
.05 to .5 seconds. The I2T ramp mode is adjustable from .18 seconds to .45
seconds, providing a short inverse time ramp.
This allows better coordination with downstream thermal-magnetic circuit
breakers and fuses. A fixed instantaneous trip point of 10,000 amps trips the
breaker automatically and overrides any pre-programmed instructions.

Short-time delay,
used in conjunction with short-time pickup

Go back to CB tripping settings ↑

5. Instantaneous Pickup
Instantaneous pickup is used to trip the circuit breaker with no intentional
delay at any current between 2 and 40 times the breaker’s continuous ampere
setting (Ir).

In this example instantaneous pickup has been set to 10 times the

continuous amp setting, or 10,000 amps (10 x 1000) with a continuous
amp setting of 1000 amps. In this case a higher setting would still trip at 10,000
amps due to a fixed instantaneous override of 10,000 amps which automatically
trips the breaker regardless of the instantaneous pickup setting.

If the continuous amp setting had been 300 amps, setting the instantaneous
pickup at 10 would make the instantaneous setting equal to 3000
amps, well below the fixed instantaneous override.
 Instantaneous
pickup – Used to trip the circuit breaker with no intentional delay at any current
between 2 and 40 times the breaker’s continuous ampere setting (Ir)

Go back to CB tripping settings ↑

6. Ground Fault Pickup

Ground fault pickup controls the amount of ground fault current that will cause
the breaker to interrupt the circuit. The adjustment can be set from 20 to 70% of
the maximum breaker rating. In compliance with NEC® 230-95 (A), no trip point
setting exceeds 1200 amps.
The ground fault pickup is divided into three sections; .1s, .2s, and
.4s. This feature adds a time delay of .1, .2, or .4 seconds to the breaker’s trip
when a ground fault occurs.

Ground fault
pickup controls the amount of ground fault current that will cause the breaker to
interrupt the circuit
Circuit breaker coordination
The ground fault pickup time delay feature is useful for circuit breaker
coordination. In the following scheme, upstream breaker “A” has been set
to .2s and downstream breakers “B” and “C” have been set to .1s.
 The ground fault pickup time delay feature is
useful for circuit breaker coordination
A ground fault occurring in the circuit supplied by “B” will trip the “B” breaker
without disturbing “A” or “C”.
Go back to CB tripping settings ↑

Reference // STEP 2000 – Molded Case Circuit Breakers (MCCB) by

SIEMENS
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Edvard Csanyi
Electrical engineer, programmer and founder of EEP. Highly specialized for
design of LV/MV switchgears and LV high power busbar trunking (<6300A) in
power substations, commercial buildings and industry fascilities. Professional in
AutoCAD programming.
 26 Comments

1.
Mohamad Ramezani
JA N 1 5 , 2 0 1 9
very thanks for detail of this document . very useful
(reply)

2.
Vishal
JA N 0 3 , 2 0 1 9
Please explain long time delay setting calculation.
(reply)

3.
SEEN BAYAS AHAMED
NOV 28, 2018
Trip characteristics is adjustable in mcb or not
(reply)

4.
Ali Taheri
NOV 17, 2018
Thank you Edvard
(reply)

5.
Thiagarajan
OCT 20, 2018
Hi Sir ,

I have problem to start 3.3kv motor . The motor start trip 21 secs due Thermal
Pickup
 Starting Current 1640Amps , The protection relay we use GE multilin 869 . As
per Mechanical documnet the Motor Alignment everything looks ok . Please
advice …..
(reply)

6.
Vivek
OCT 06, 2018
Sir
I want to know about LBB tripping settings for 33kv VCB and 220kv SF6
breaker.
(reply)

7.
NITIN BHAGWAN MHASKE
OCT 03, 2018
Very helpful article.Thank You for sharing
(reply)

8.
OM SINGH
SE P 3 0 , 2 0 1 8
Hi Edvard,
Thanks for theses technical information of CB. Theses are very helpful for me.
(reply)

9.
Rustam Gasimov
SE P 2 9 , 2 0 1 8
Thank you for detailed information.
(reply)

10.
Khuram Shahzad
AUG 10, 2018
 sir ,
hope you are fine,
please share difference between lr and lm sitting in mg barker.
(reply)

11.
Habib
AUG 07, 2018
Hi Edvard,
Thanks for giving information,
1- what was the difference between Making Capacity and Breaking Capacity?
2- Can we design our systems according to Making Capacity?
3- If Maximum Instantaneous Trip set level 15% of rated Breaker than what
happened when Short circuit occurred greater than INS trip Set level.
4- In 3Pole MCCB/ACB without additional C.T Breaker tripped on earth fault
what was the reasons?
5- What is the difference between REF and UREF ground fault?
(reply)

12.
Ishaq Qamar
JU L 1 3 , 2 0 1 8
Great information.
I am very thankful to you if you send me the all breaker trip setting level as per
different ampare load for data center to fallow the IEC .
(reply)

13.
CURT
JU N 2 3 , 2 0 1 8
How do the terms, “Ir” and “In” relate to one another in an adjustable breaker? I
tested an electronic insulated case breaker the other day and the current setting
was adjustable from .5 to 1 and labeled ‘XIn” The instantaneous range was
adjustable from 3 to 6 and was labeled “XIr” Is one adjustment based on rating
plug and the other based on frame size of the breaker?
(reply)
14.
Dave Wehage
MAR 28, 2018
Good info.
(reply)

15.
Amir
MAR 07, 2018
Thank you so much. I was wondering if you let me know IEC/IEEE standards for
short time pick up.
(reply)

16.
Shahrooz
DE C 1 2 , 2 0 1 7
That was great. helped me a lot.
(reply)

17.
Ramachandra Laxman
NOV 10, 2017
Very helpful. Good job.
(reply)

18.
NITIN
DE C 1 7 , 2 0 1 6
LSIG BREAKER RELEASE
(reply)
19.
Raj
NOV 22, 2016
This site is very helpful to electrical engineers like me …thankyou
(reply)

20.
KARTHICK
NOV 14, 2016
Thanks sir……very useful material…….
(reply)

21.
Gustabo Calderon
NOV 13, 2016
Thank you so much Edvard, very good job.
(reply)

22.
Asan Masraf
JU L 0 5 , 2 0 1 6
I follow the of articles but if is possible to make these articles available in soft
copy.
(reply)


Edvard
JU L 0 5 , 2 0 1 6
Hi Asan, see the button ‘Get PDF’ on your left? That your answer :) To create
PDF out of any technical article.
(reply)
23.
Muneeb Islam
JU N 2 2 , 2 0 1 6
Thank you Edvard, I have been looking for this info for long. I shall inquire about
this in detail soon.
What is the standard testing current injection limits for 400A and 800A MCCB?
Muneeb Islam
(reply)

24.
‫عكرود نبيل‬
JU N 1 5 , 2 0 1 6
I like your Job, Very very interesting and very helpfull.
keep better, go on!!
(reply)

25.
Frank Schraner
JU N 1 0 , 2 0 1 6
Great article, when you don’t do it every day you forget some of this. Having the
curve right next to the explanation helps even more THANK YOU! I’m going to
print this and keep it with my field work tools.