Electrical – Two CBs tripping

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There was an incident where computer servers tripped, and when I checked I saw that the MCB (Merlin Gerin Multi 9 C60H 63Amps) and its main breaker (Merlin Gerin multi 9 NC100H 100 Amps) BOTH tripped.

How come two CBs trip at the same time? What does it indicate?

Best Answer

It's hard to get breakers to trip in the sequence you want. Generally there are four ways a breaker can possibly trip.

Magnetic overload - a massive overcurrent resulting in an instant trip. Which breaker trips first will be totally random.

Thermal overload - this is a gentler overcurrent that will eventually overheat the wires. The breaker heats about as fast as the wires do, and trips before they get too hot. If two breakers are of a significantly different rating, the smaller one should trip first. If they are close, it comes down to manufacturing tolerance.

Ground fault (GFCI aka RCD) - all of them which see the ground fault will trip.

Arc fault (AFCI) - like the GFCIs all which hear the arc fault will trip. If you hooked a line-voltage speaker to the line, you'd hear mostly 50/60 Hz hum, and literally the sound of arcing. That is what the breakers are listening for. Breakers can hear crosstalk from other breakers, and so more than just the affected breakers may trip.