Fuses are a lot smaller and cheaper and for lower current applications they work just fine
Think about your car fuse box and how many mini fuses they can fit in there. A small resettable breaker is going to be about 10x the size of an automotive mini fuse so you end up needing a lot more space dedicated to the “fuse box”.
Mini circuit breakers are also a lot more expensive. You can get the mini fuses for like $0.01 each, probably less if you’re an automaker buying by the millions. Mini circuit breakers are going to be 10-50x more. An extra $100 in circuit breakers per car for no value add doesn’t make sense for the manufacturers
Because fuses, from an electrical safety standpoint, are better than breakers.
A fuse is either live, or burnt. A circuit breaker can “hang” (ie not quite trip) which is a safety hazard.
The reason for using breakers in houses is that it is far more convenient for a homeowner to just reset them, than to have to remember to keep spare fuses on hand.
Fuses are a lot smaller and cheaper and for lower current applications they work just fine
Think about your car fuse box and how many mini fuses they can fit in there. A small resettable breaker is going to be about 10x the size of an automotive mini fuse so you end up needing a lot more space dedicated to the “fuse box”.
Mini circuit breakers are also a lot more expensive. You can get the mini fuses for like $0.01 each, probably less if you’re an automaker buying by the millions. Mini circuit breakers are going to be 10-50x more. An extra $100 in circuit breakers per car for no value add doesn’t make sense for the manufacturers
Fuses are a lot smaller and cheaper and for lower current applications they work just fine
Think about your car fuse box and how many mini fuses they can fit in there. A small resettable breaker is going to be about 10x the size of an automotive mini fuse so you end up needing a lot more space dedicated to the “fuse box”.
Mini circuit breakers are also a lot more expensive. You can get the mini fuses for like $0.01 each, probably less if you’re an automaker buying by the millions. Mini circuit breakers are going to be 10-50x more. An extra $100 in circuit breakers per car for no value add doesn’t make sense for the manufacturers
Because fuses, from an electrical safety standpoint, are better than breakers.
A fuse is either live, or burnt. A circuit breaker can “hang” (ie not quite trip) which is a safety hazard.
The reason for using breakers in houses is that it is far more convenient for a homeowner to just reset them, than to have to remember to keep spare fuses on hand.
Because fuses, from an electrical safety standpoint, are better than breakers.
A fuse is either live, or burnt. A circuit breaker can “hang” (ie not quite trip) which is a safety hazard.
The reason for using breakers in houses is that it is far more convenient for a homeowner to just reset them, than to have to remember to keep spare fuses on hand.
In cars I suspect it’s simply a cost issue, fuses are cheap compared to the cost of a breaker and they don’t blow very often. I fly small airplanes (Cessnas and Pipers) and most of them (in fact everyone I’ve flown) use circuit breakers right on the instrument panel. Obviously if a critical circuit overloads you can’t just pullover and find / change a fuse.
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