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FPE Problems
FPE Problems
What is the problem with FPE breakers?
FPE breakers were produced by a company named Federal Pacific Electric, now long gone.
If you want to scare yourself, go to your search engine and Google for "FPE problems" or "FPE report".
Basically FPE breakers are only thermal breakers. They're not fully thermal-magnetic breakers. Thermal only breakers rely on a bimetallic strip to heat up and trip the breaker.
Modern thermal magnetic breakers have an additional magnetic solenoid that trips the breaker more quickly when there is a fault current.
If you short out a circuit by touching the black and white wires together a FPE breakers will take almost a full second or two before it trips. A modern thermal magnetic breaker will trip in only about one-fourth of the second. The faster it turns off the better and the less chance there will be of something overheating. Of course we don't want a bunch of sparks flying onto anything combustible.
Replacing these old out of date FPE breakers with a modern panel and AFCI breakers will be beneficial. Be sure and read the article on Arc fault circuit breakers and plan to provide enough space for these larger modern circuit breakers.
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