Patent ID: 7710697

Claim:
An electrical circuit protection system providing a circuit protection in an electrical power distribution system, said electrical circuit protection system comprising: an automatic reset circuit breaker for protecting against overcurrent having at least one contact directly attached to a bi-metallic member; the bi-metallic member being in a protected current path through the circuit breaker and configured to snap the at least one directly attached contact into an open position in the event of an overcurrent condition in the bi-metallic member; wherein the bi-metallic member restores the at least one directly attached contact into a closed position when the overcurrent condition in the bi-metallic member is no longer present and maintains the at least one directly attached contact in a closed position in an absence of an overcurrent condition; a commutation module electrically connected to said automatic reset circuit breaker; a controller that sets a state of said commutation module based on: detected state of said automatic reset circuit breaker; and externally input commands; wherein said commutation module is a latching relay; and wherein said latching relay includes an OFF/trip solenoid, an ON/reset solenoid, a main contact and a status contact, said status contact being physically linked to said main contact to mimic operation of said main contact.