Remote Controlled Circuit Breakers

[Mustang65]

After getting ISY994iZ, and interfaced it with the Burltech GEM, I thought it would be great to control each of the service breakers remotely and or through the use of ISY and or the GEM. One of my original thoughts was to add relays on the outputs of each of the Service panel individual breakers connected to my original Arduino circuits. Space was the limiting factor with this idea. 

Now that I am looking at installing 10kW of SOLAR, and I need to upgrade my service panel, the idea popped up again. So i started searching for  Remote Controlled Circuit Breakers.

After searching the net, I came up with an EATON Remote Controlled Circuit Breakers . They operate off of 24VDC. I am not sure as to what amp ratings are available, that will be my next step.

We are usually gone for 4 to 6 months of the year, so this will make the process of shutting down the breakers prior to leaving and turning them back on when returning from the trip. I would make an interface circuit between the remote controlled circuit breakers and a controller for interfacing with ISY and or the GEM.  I am always working on or trouble shooting electrical things and I figured this would be better than running out around the house and flipping the breakers on and off. Ok, getting lazy in my old age.

Finally, the question...... does anyone have any experience with this type of product?

 

 

 

 

[JimMc]

It looks to me like this breaker requires a separate, hard-wired controller to turn it on and off. The controller (EER260LLCR) accepts wireless Zigbee commands and itself appears to be designed for specific load-shedding situations, and not for use in a general purpose home breaker panel.

[Mustang65]

They have a residential version, I believe it is the BBR version. I will investigate...

Here is a document with the solenoid operating data. 

http://www.eaton.com/ecm/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&allowInterrupt=1&RevisionSelectionMethod=LatestReleased&noSaveAs=0&Rendition=Primary&dDocName=998056290853

EATON - Remote Control Breaker Switch.pdf

[Teken]

Don,

You're following pretty closely to what I am doing: http://www.eaton.com/Eaton/ProductsServices/Electrical/ProductsandServices/ElectricalDistribution/PowerDistributionComponents/LightingControl/PRC2000E/index.htm

 

[JimMc]

3 hours ago, Teken said:

Don,

You're following pretty closely to what I am doing: http://www.eaton.com/Eaton/ProductsServices/Electrical/ProductsandServices/ElectricalDistribution/PowerDistributionComponents/LightingControl/PRC2000E/index.htm

 

Built-in load measurements is a nice feature. What is the top level control interface, wifi?

[Teken]

Device supports wired / wireless Ethernet, RS-485, RS-232 Serial. Also supports other communication protocols which I forget. What is very powerful is the local dimming, relay switching which supports conditional logic of if, then, else, XOR, XNOR, etc.

Has a built in astronomical clock, energy monitoring, energy management, load shedding. Supports ALL loads so no need to worry about silly incompatible loads!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DrLumen]

What kind of costs are you looking at for local dimming?

[Teken]

24 minutes ago, DrLumen said:

What kind of costs are you looking at for local dimming?

Who is this question directed at?

[DrLumen]

6 hours ago, Teken said:

Who is this question directed at?

What constitutes local dimming? A slider in place of a switch with a rack of dimmers somewhere centrally located or a dimmer at the switch? Have you costed out for rack dimming and the additional wiring? If so, how much?

[Teken]

14 hours ago, DrLumen said:

What constitutes local dimming? A slider in place of a switch with a rack of dimmers somewhere centrally located or a dimmer at the switch? Have you costed out for rack dimming and the additional wiring? If so, how much?

Dimming is handled by the main service panel, control software, or through a switch. Wiring is exactly the same with no added costs, complexity, etc. A person will continue to wire standard, 2-way, 3-way, etc as before.

To be clear, my primary goal and objective is having the ability at a global level to kill power to any branch circuit in the home. This is done for several reasons which are presented in no specific order of importance or relevance: Surge / Sag Protection, Zero Standby Power, Just In Time Use, Electrical Theft, Privacy, Security, and Force Protection. Having conditional logic, ToU, Schedules, will allow me to remotely and automatically manage the power distribution of the home.

I've been managing multi billion dollar facilities this way for more than 20 years.

Only in the last 15 years this same technology has finally come down in costs to the consumer level where its practical to do.