In a typical house electric panel, electrically, a main breaker is the same
as a regular breaker. That is if too much amperage is being used, it will
trip and shut off the electricity.

Mechanically, a main breaker is pretty much designed to be a part of the
panel itself. Not designed to be easily switched out with a different value
breaker. Whereas with the other breakers in the panel, these along with
their slots are designed to easily install different types and amperages of
breakers as needed for particular circuits.



"Aaron Fude" wrote in message
Hi,

This is just a theoretical question to satisfy my curiosity.

A panel can be back-fed through a regular breaker. How is a main breaker,
then, different from a regular breaker? Or is it just a breaker that
doesn't give you an option of not having it?

Thanks,

Aaron