@Vernon Barry posted:Fine to disagree but I stated the reason.
The breaker is there to protect as equipment much as possible. The way to do that is put at the source.
Vernon,
Your conclusion is correct for clamping voltage spikes, but not for stopping excessive current flow. Why? The current is interrupted through the entire path at essentially the same time (given the speed of electrons). It's not interrupted near the source any quicker than the at the far end.
Therefore a traditional breaker or fuse can go anywhere along the path. Everything in that path is protected simultaneously and to the same degree.
(Electronic breakers are a different story because they need to be powered in order to do their job. Where that power comes from is important, but not with traditional fuses and breakers which need no external power to determine that excessive current is flowing.)
Mike
