What are the advantages and disadvantages of Fuse?

 A circuit breaker can interrupt the circuits automatically on the occurrence of a short-circuit fault. The same function can also be performed by a fuse with some merits and demerits. In this post we will go through the advantages and disadvantages of fuse.

The cheapest protection against short circuits and circuit overloads in an electrical circuit is a fuse. The term "fuse" refers to a metal wire or thin metal strip that is put into an electrical circuit as a protective device and has the property of having a low melting point.  

When a circuit is shorted, a fuse protects it against excessive currents that might flow through it. When a fault like a short circuit or a load bigger than the circuit's capacity is connected to it, the current through the circuit exceeds the limiting value, which causes the fuse wire to heat up, melt, and interrupt the current.

Under normal working conditions, the current flowing through the circuit is within safe limits. Thus fuse protects the machine or electrical equipment against the excessive currents.

Fig: Fuse & Circuit breaker

Table of Contents:

1. Advantages of fuse.

2. Disadvantages of fuse.

What are the advantages of fuse?

Advantages:

1. It is the cheapest form of electrical protection available.

2. It requires no maintenance.

3. It can break heavy short-circuit currents without noise and smoke.

4. Unlike a circuit breaker it does not have any arrangement for automatic operation.

5. Fuse operation involves no complication and is straightforward.

6. Fuse operating times can be significantly reduced compared to circuit breaker operations. It is the primary safeguard against short circuits.

7. Overload protection can also be achieved using the fuse's inverse time current property.

Read more: What is the working principle of the fuse?

What are the disadvantages of fuse?

Disadvantages:

1. After every operation a considerable time is lost in rewiring or replacing a new fuse.

2. The current-time characteristics of a fuse cannot always be co-related with that of the protected apparatus.

3. On heavy short-circuits, discrimination between fuses in series cannot be obtained unless there is sufficient difference in the size of the fuses concerned. 

Read More: 

1. What is High Rupturing Capacity(H.R.C.) cartridge fuse? advantage and disadvantage of it.

2. What is H.R.C. fuse with tripping device? advantages of it.

3. What are the Classification of fuses?

4. What are the materials used as fuse element? 

5. What are the disadvantages of kit-kat fuse?

6. What are the differences between fuse and circuit breaker?  

 7. Oil circuit breaker advantages and disadvantages?