Leviton announced that its GFCI and Dual Function AFCI/GFCI circuit breakers are the only circuit breakers currently on the market that meet the newly revised UL943 Standard for Ground-Fault Circuit-Interrupters. The UL943 standard was revised to improve auto-monitoring, requiring permanently connected Ground-Fault Circuit-Interrupters to provide the same high level of life-safety protection as their GFCI receptacle counterparts, thereby removing previous exemptions to End of Life (EOL) events for GFCI circuit breakers.
The current standard now requires circuit breakers with GFCI technology to respond to all seven UL-identified “single component failure modes that can cause the GFCI to become unable to respond to a ground-fault”. If even one of these seven failures occur, GFCI protection is lost. Previously, only GFCI receptacles were required to respond to all seven failures, and GFCI circuit breakers were granted exceptions to two of the seven failures, requiring them to respond only to five. Because of these exceptions, it was possible for a GFCI circuit breaker to be reset and continue to provide unprotected power. Although this gap in protection has now been closed, manufacturers have been given more than three years to improve their design to conform.
“The Leviton Load Center GFCI and Dual Function AFCI/GFCI circuit breakers were designed from the start to provide more complete protection by responding to all seven EOL component failure modes,” said Justin Berghoff, director of business development and product management for Leviton Residential. “As the industry leader in GFCI devices for decades, we seized the opportunity to do what we do best and incorporate it into our circuit breakers, providing customers with up-to-date, safe and reliable solutions.”
The Leviton Load Center redefines what a load center should be with enhanced, industry-leading safety features, an all plug-on design* for easy installation and a more contemporary aesthetic. Its circuit breakers feature intuitive, at-a-glance diagnostics to make it easy for users to identify trip condition and type of fault (arc- or ground-fault) without the need to reset the circuit breakers. Industry-first line side powered electronics ensure LED indicators remain lit, even when tripped.
For more information, visit: www.levitonloadcenter.com.
*For applications up to 60A when using copper wire, or 50A when using aluminum
