$1.50 Mains circuit breakers

[Whales]

B, C and D types; single to triple pole.   EDIT: RCDs too (but they're more expensive).

https://lcsc.com/products/Circuit-breake_11004.html

"CHINT" brand. Example $1.50 C10 : https://lcsc.com/product-detail/Circuit-breake_NXB-63-1P-C10A_C153829.html

Very curious about what's inside one.  Might add a couple to an order before I get home in a few weeks.  No I'm not going to use one in my house, for reasons of 'negative feedback'  I need to stick to brands I can keep accountable/are local.

These things are made in large enough quantities that $1.50 might be a realistic manufacture + sales cost.  Are the well-known western brands anywhere near this cheap in quantity?

[capt bullshot]

The cheapest well known brands here (Germany, Reichelt, single pieces):
ABB B16 2.80 EUR
Kopp B16 2.60 EUR

Other characteristics and nominal current ratings are significantly more expensive.
B16 is pretty much the usual standard here.

[Whales]

Thanks bullshot.  Looks like we're not magnitudes off then, so these breakers have a chance of being not-crazy.

EDIT: Just read your signature

Side question: I'm in Greece currently, it looks like the standard is to use C breakers (C10, C16) for lights + pp in houses rather than B.  Is this common in other parts of Europe?

[capt bullshot]

Side question: I'm in Greece currently, it looks like the standard is to use C breakers (C10, C16) for lights + pp in houses rather than B.  Is this common in other parts of Europe?

No idea. Anyway, IMO B characteristics sometimes is too sensitive. E.g. if you turn on a "beefy" tower PC plus two monitors setup through a single switchable power strip, this can trip a "B" breaker at fifty-fifty chance. But regulation and standards tend to over-emphasize safety, so your vanilla electrician might refuse to install a "C" breaker, just to be sure.
Otherwise, you'll find a lot of legacy installation with old "L" breakers, AFAIK these are very slow in terms of overload (thermal trigger), so IMO they're more dangerous than modern "C" types.

[stevelup]

Type B is almost universally used in the UK for residential applications - it's very rare to see type C used.

But bear in mind a UK ring final circuit is normally protected with a 32A breaker so even a type B breaker will tolerate the best part of 100A for many seconds!

[Whales]

I have some ancient type 'L' breakers at hand, but I'm not having any luck researching them up on the web.  Is there an extended form of the "L" name?

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

Very curious about what's inside one.  Might add a couple to an order before I get home in a few weeks.  No I'm not going to use one in my house, for reasons of 'negative feedback'  I need to stick to brands I can keep accountable/are local.

As you probably know they would need Australian accreditation before you would be allowed to get them installed in your switchboard.
From memory I was paying about $6 a breaker ex gst. The big players control the market here though.

Type B is almost universally used in the UK for residential applications - it's very rare to see type C used.

But bear in mind a UK ring final circuit is normally protected with a 32A breaker so even a type B breaker will tolerate the best part of 100A for many seconds!

Thats different to here.
I dont think I've ever even seen a B breaker.
In Au we use C almost exclusively on domestic and occasionally D for motors etc.

[capt bullshot]

I have some ancient type 'L' breakers at hand, but I'm not having any luck researching them up on the web.  Is there an extended form of the "L" name?

Depending on the source, "L" means "Leitungsschutz" or "Licht" (line protection / lighting).
According to this source :
https://www.elektropraktiker.de/ep-2005-09-659-660.pdf?eID=tx_nawsecuredl&falId=7183&hash=260ca8f934b46a054ae4483d1b9e2262
the thermal trip is at 1.4 ... 1.75 of the rated current (for a 16A breaker), in contrary the "B" thermal trip point is at 1.13 ... 1.45 of rated current.

[Whales]

Thankyou Bullshot, exactly what I'm after.

[kony]

Don't cheap out on breakers. I had seen repetetive full rated short current tests done on cheap chineese and branded European ones and the cheap imports were barely able to sustain single test, sometimes even failing to disconnect, sometimes exploding badly - you really don't want have huge ball of plasma being spitted out any time short occurs downstream. Unable to reset is just a joke fault compared to that. Specimens from ABB and Eaton were fine even after five full rated current events.