Use of ECBs

[pwdrive]

Regarding my last post, a non RCD protected feed: So far as I can make out some folks are paranoid about the possibility of a freezer or fridge freezer tripping out the power if they are away on holiday etc. Not sure what the sense of that is, if the freezer trips the RCD the freezer has developed a fault.

Lawrence.

[Radio Fixer]

Yes! I see it the same as you Lawrence.

If the freezer is on its own RCD protected circuit and it trips out that's fair enough. It must be a fault condition with that appliance. I cant make it quite as isolated as that but just all the sockets in the utility room. We would unplug the washing machine and any other items before going away. I'd be happy with that.

Gary

[pwdrive]

Here's a discussion about it:

http://www.theiet.org/forums/forum/messa...?catid=205&threadid=34217&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

Fridge/freezer faulty or just the way things are designed ?...Who knows, all I can say is at our place all circuits are RCD protected, I wouldn't want it any other way.

Lawrence.

[pwdrive]

Meanwhile my wife has got the new oven working ok.

Lawrence.

[Radio Fixer]

" all I can say is at our place all circuits are RCD protected, I wouldn't want it any other way. "

Agreed, me too. But cold storage as isolated to its own RCD as much as possible.

Gary

[AlanBeckett]

The Neutral should be bonded to Earth at the Meter and be tagged as PME.
Don't know what the Regs say about unprotected Circuits these days, although I bet there's a way round it.
The Mower, despite being Double Insulated, could easily trip the RCD 'cause a leak from Live to the Grass will unbalance the Circuit.

Alan

[Alan Douglas]

It's bad enough keeping up with acronyms on this side of the pond, but can someone translate for me? ECB? Electronic Circuit Breaker?? I'm guessing an RCD is what we would call a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter or just GFI) but I can't put any electrical terms to R and D. Now we have arc-fault breakers too (but this house still has fuses).

[pwdrive]

Our house earthing cable is connected to the incoming DNO's neutral in a "tamper proof" box in the outside meter cupboard.

Lawrence.

[pwdrive]

Alan D, over here... RCD = Residual Current Device, it senses an imbalance of current between the live and neutral, Eg: Live to earth current flow or neutral to earth current flow, above a certain imbalance (30 ma is common here) the device trips and cuts off the supply to downstream, it's resettable.

MCB = Minature Circuit Breaker, does the job of the old style fuses and is resettable.

RCBO = Residual Current Breaker with Overcurrent, does both of the above all in one minature unit.

There are other acronyms but those are the ones I'm most familiar with.

Lawrence. EDIT: I also used the term DNO ('s) that is the District Network Operator, responsible for low voltage power distribution in their prescribed area, there are are several DNO companies over here, our place is served by Western Power Distribution. The electricity supply companies are a different entity.

[Radio Fixer]

" The Neutral should be bonded to Earth at the Meter and be tagged as PME. "

Well now another two things I don't understand. What does PME stand for? And the neutral being bonded to earth. To me that is a No! No!. The neutral has volts on it and I have always understood that it should not be connected to earth at the domestic premises. I was told it is connected to earth back at sub station or the transformer that splits out the phases.

Well I hope it was the mower Alan and yes you don't actually need an earth to it. The RCD trips because on an unbalance in the L and N wires. I will have to try it again sometime. But it still seems unlikely the lead is in good order and when I cut the stalks off the grass it was bone dry. We hadn't had rain for about a month. Gladly we had some last night.

Gary