And why did the more descriptive term of RCCB became the somewhat-vague RCD while RCBO is still being used? Why hasn't that become an RCDO?I agree the RCBO is also a overload, however it seems some are unaware it is a RCD.
I really don't understand the messing around with terminology for the sake of it which seems to have started to pervade the U.K. electrical trade in more recent years.
I've lost track, but perhaps that was the original intent. Which leads us to wonder why RCCB was abandoned in favor of the generic RCD by most manufacturers after such a relatively short time.Although it's not how we've come to use it, wasn't the intention that 'RCD' should be a generic term which covered a range of devices, and that the specific devices we now usually call RCDs should really have continued to be called ELCBs or RCCBs?
Certainly - Putting a current-operated ELCB / RCCB / RCD / GFCI on an existing circuit is a sure-fire way to find any "borrowed" neutrals where there is no earth/ground fault current involved, but that's probably about the only time it's likely, although an obscure fault between two circuits could also do it.As for the difference between the latter two, I suppose that if one is prepared to consider the incredibly unlikely, the 'residual current' does not have to be due to 'earth leakage' (or, in the US, a 'ground fault') - so, in that sense, RCCB is probably technically more correct.
At least the U.K. doesn't yet seem to be going anywhere near the AFCI; it's anybody's guess what it might end up being called there!