Circuit Breaker

[Pete,A]

How is a three pole circuit breaker wired in a consumer unit, and can it be used as a single pole circuit breaker by wiring between one pole and neutral.

[buildersmate]

Not sure what a three pole circuit breaker is. The way you have worded this suggests you are referring to 3-phase circuits. If so, a consumer unit doesn't normally have a 3-phase supply to it unless you have a workshop or an industrial supply. A domestic supply to a single dwelling is one phase of the 3-phase supply that is distributed along the highway. You put a circuit breaker in that supply between the incoming live cable and the domestic load. The neutral goes back from the return side of the domestic load to the cable in the street. What exactly are you seeking to do?

[Pete,A]

It is a three phase supply in an industrial unit, and I can see that someone has used one phase of a three phase circuit breaker to gain a 230V supply for lighting. What I need to know is will the circuit breaker work ok if only one phase is used. Thanks.

[buildersmate]

Yes. Such a circuit breaker cuts the supply side on all three cables providing the feed for each phase. Now I see why you described it as a 3 pole breaker. You obviously need MCB protection of the lighting circuit and its cabling on the load side of the breaker - normally a 6A MCB