Ground fault circuit interrupter with indicator lamp
AssigneePass & Seymour, Inc.
InventorDavid A. Finlay, Sr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An AC power line protection device which includes miswiring protection has an indicator lamp which lights when the device is in the tripped condition and turns off when the device is reset. If the device is miswired after having been wired properly, the indicator lamp does not light when the device is tripped, and so provides a supplemental indication of miswiring. The indicator lamp is powered via the hot line bus bar of the interrupting contacts to meet safety standards.
Claims10
A protection device connected between hot and neutral conductors of an AC power line, comprising:
- a fault detection circuit including a breaker coil operatively associated with a set of interrupting contacts;
- said interrupting contacts including a hot bus bar and a neutral bus bar;
- an indicator lamp circuit including an indicator lamp connected between said hot conductor on a line side of said interrupting contacts and said hot bus bar;
- and
- said fault detection circuit is powered from said hot bus bar.
A method for protecting against miswiring a protection device connected between hot and neutral conductors of an AC power line, wherein said device includes an interrupter having two contacts on a hot bus bur connected respectively to line hot and load hot terminals and two contacts on a neutral bus bar connected respectively to line neutral and load neutral terminals, wherein said interrupter opens and closes to electrically disconnect and connect said load hot terminals, respectively, comprising the steps of:
- connecting a resistance between said hot conductor on a line side of said interrupter and said hot bus bar;
- and
- connecting an indicator in series with said resistance, wherein said indicator indicates if a power source is connected across said line hot and line neutral terminals while said contacts are open.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.