Probably because he doesn't have a clue about any of the things he's talking about.
Voltage Operated ELCB dying-What MUST be replaced in system?
- Thread starter harryhound
- Start date
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To recap - two qualified electricians fitted a "garage" consumer unit extension to my 1960s designed circuitry; including a nice new earth rod as the supply is "TT" :- as in Japan, two overhead wires supply the electricity and the home owner is expected to supply the earthing.
Unfortunately they then strapped together the old and the new, so when a major short to earth occurred, the majority of the current chose the nice new rod. The minority passing through the 40 year old "Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker" was insufficient to trigger it immediately but was enough to overheat its mechanism. Thus the ELCB became ineffective.
So I have now fitted the old part of the circuit with an "Incomer" 80 Amp/30mAmp "Wylex" Residual Current Device, while I was at it, and discovering that there seemed to be a fuse wire shortage in all the usual outlets, I upgraded the "Wylex" fuse box by replacing the wire fuses with Miniature Circuit Breakers.
OK I know I don't have the hundreds or thousands of pounds of precision accuracy testing equipment, but I spotted a remark on the forum about the good old days of testing circuits using a pygmy lamp.
This made me think: I rewired the plug of an extension flex by swapping over the the neutral and the earth.
Using two desk lights, one fitted with a Compact Fluorescent Lamp drawing 8 Watts, the other a Light Emitting Diode lamp drawing theoretically 0.9 of a Watt.
The former, when plugged into any socket, triggered the RCD and the latter functioned as normally.
My son tested the lighting circuit to the bungalow by blundering about in the loft and tripping over a lighting cable.
I was worried that the 30 mA trigger for the RCD night have been too sensitive, but with the exception of my son snapping the feed to a light fitting, the RCD has not tripped in action since.
Unfortunately they then strapped together the old and the new, so when a major short to earth occurred, the majority of the current chose the nice new rod. The minority passing through the 40 year old "Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker" was insufficient to trigger it immediately but was enough to overheat its mechanism. Thus the ELCB became ineffective.
So I have now fitted the old part of the circuit with an "Incomer" 80 Amp/30mAmp "Wylex" Residual Current Device, while I was at it, and discovering that there seemed to be a fuse wire shortage in all the usual outlets, I upgraded the "Wylex" fuse box by replacing the wire fuses with Miniature Circuit Breakers.
OK I know I don't have the hundreds or thousands of pounds of precision accuracy testing equipment, but I spotted a remark on the forum about the good old days of testing circuits using a pygmy lamp.
This made me think: I rewired the plug of an extension flex by swapping over the the neutral and the earth.
Using two desk lights, one fitted with a Compact Fluorescent Lamp drawing 8 Watts, the other a Light Emitting Diode lamp drawing theoretically 0.9 of a Watt.
The former, when plugged into any socket, triggered the RCD and the latter functioned as normally.
My son tested the lighting circuit to the bungalow by blundering about in the loft and tripping over a lighting cable.
I was worried that the 30 mA trigger for the RCD night have been too sensitive, but with the exception of my son snapping the feed to a light fitting, the RCD has not tripped in action since.
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