chrisrappl wrote:
Refering to Jim Phillips' article in Electrical Contractor...
Guess I better respond
This is one that goes back to what does “interaction” mean. It is a bit of an interpretation. Changing a setting could be considered interaction by some but is it an interaction that could cause an arc flash hazard? I believe many of the setting functions do not create a physical operation or change to the breaker itself; it is more of a programming issue - it depends on the design of the breaker. You are correct, if you have to de-energize to lower a setting to perform live work, you defeated the purpose.
I do recall one instance about 15 years ago where I was
increasing a setting on an older GE MVT and it tripped. Quite a surprise since I did not imagine increasing the setting would be an issue. There was a design hiccup where it went to zero between settings - oops.

In that case a setting change resulted in a physical operation (and made my heart skip a beat)