07-13-2010, 12:45 PM
One other thing I thought of regarding fuse protection. It is tempting to install a circuit breaker instead of a fuse. That is fine if the circuit breaker requires a manual reset. I retired from Carrier Transicold repairing transport refrigeration units. Typically we would have fuses in the units, but some people got tired of replacing fuses, because they did not find the root cause for fuses blowing. They would install automatic resetting circuit breakers thinking that would solve the problem. The problem was that a circuit breaker that is constantly tripping and resetting will overheat and fail. If it fails open, your ok. If it fails by having the points weld shut, you have just lost all circuit protection!