An apparatus and method for monitoring a circuit under load using a circuit breaker

A method for monitoring a circuit under load using a circuit breaker comprising:

• a) establishing a baseline over time for the circuit based on angular displacements in a sine curve based on voltage and current for the circuit in a vicinity of a zero crossing point of the sine curve, and a power factor, impedance, capacitance, and inductive reactance, the baseline based on a period at the time of monitoring and the period at a start time;
• b) repeatedly monitoring a functioning in-service circuit over a period of time in the vicinity of the zero crossing point for a sine curve of the in-service circuit using the angular displacements, power factor, impedance, capacitance, and inductive reactance used in step (a) for the load of the in-service circuit;
• and
• c) comparing the baseline of step (a) to information from step (b) to determine a degradation for the functioning in-service circuit and a decay curve, the decay curve providing an indication of a deterioration of the circuit, the decay curve providing a guide for generating an alarm and/or rendering the circuit inoperable.