Difference between switch and disconnector.

Devices such as a switch and disconnector are often used in electrical installations. What is each of them for?

What is a circuit breaker?

The term " switch" is quite versatile. In the everyday sense, it most often corresponds to a small device, usually placed on the walls of living quarters and used to turn on or off the light. Switches are manual, automatic, and those that respond to sound or movement.

Circuit breaker

There are circuit breakers designed for installation on power equipment: they are used to supply current or, conversely, to de-energize one or another section of the energy supply infrastructure.

All types of switches function in a similar way: in the on position, they allow current to be transferred from the source to the powered device (for example, a light bulb), in the off position, they interrupt the current supply. In this case, the open section of the circuit is, as a rule, not visible, since the switch body is generally opaque.

Switches are used in cases where the start and stop of the current supply to a particular device is carried out sufficiently often, and therefore in one or another position - on or off - the device in question is usually not too long.

What is a disconnector?

The term " disconnector" is also quite versatile. But it is most often used in the context of professional electrical equipment that is part of an industrial energy infrastructure.

Disconnector

The purpose of the disconnector is to provide reliable physical disconnection of electrical circuit elements, and, as a rule, easily visible. In most cases, the device in question is manually activated.

Usually, disconnectors are used in cases where the circuit needs to be opened for a rather long period - for example, in order to repair a section of the energy infrastructure. Likewise - if it needs to be closed for a long time and reliably.

Comparison

The main difference between a circuit breaker and a disconnector is that the first device provides a relatively short-term opening of the elements of the electrical circuit (and at the same time is not always visible), the second, as a rule, is long-term (and, moreover, well visible).

The first term most often corresponds to a well-known household appliance, with the help of which the light in the room is turned on or off. The second is a device, mainly used in the industrial sphere as an element of electrical installations.

It is worth noting that there are special switches in the industry as well, and they can be functionally significantly different from the disconnectors used in the same infrastructure. So, switches for electrical installations, for example, can switch currents at a sufficiently high load, while not all disconnectors can be used for similar purposes.

Having determined what is the difference between the switch and the disconnector, we fix the conclusions in the table.

Table

Circuit breaker Disconnector
The term most often corresponds to a small household appliance for turning on or off the light in a room (but there are also industrial switches)The term most often corresponds to an industrial device that is used to open the power sections of the energy infrastructure
Assumes the opening of an electrical circuit without the ability to view the open sectionAssumes the opening of the circuit with the ability to view the open section
designed to open a circuit under loadIndustrial disconnectors are often not designed to open a circuit under load
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