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I wouldn‘t have binned the microwave. Anything with mains filter capacitors inside will read voltage if not earthed and can give slight tingles if touched while also touching earthed objects. Sink and dishwasher is a fairly common combo. I believe you can get modern upgrades for those old...

It’s a bit more complex than that. Some European countries use all single-pole MCBs and hardly any RCBOs. Others use 1+N MCBs, most of which are two modules wide. Single module ones are readily available but the selection of bus bars is limited. Keep in mind that many of those countries have...

As soon as you have one fault you effectively get the equivalent of a TT system and one conductor is now referenced to a fixed potential. If there‘s a second fault you need protection. Just like an IT system.

The oldest DP RCBOs I‘ve seen, from the late 70s I think, were no less than four modules wide. An Italian spark gave one to me for my collection of electrical oddities. They were made by Stotz Kontakt (SK) in Germany, who also made the plug-in MCBs for Wylex CUs for a while.

Depending on the voltages you‘re running at you might still want a fixed reference and fault protection with DC. If you stay below 120 V or so that’s not an issue though.

That’s precisely my point - if they were somehow required, you‘d expect to see a lot more of them. RCBOs do often seem to be DP but for no apparent technical reason.

Certainly, the question is whether you really want to ignore it. Personally I wouldn‘t want to replace one of these live if there was a dead short.

I agree, there‘s absolutely no need for neutral sensing in the UK. If there was, no one could use single-pole MCBs either.

It looks like there are three T&E cables. Two have the black wires connected together, the third cut off. It seems reasonable to me that the former two cables are feed in and feed out (L and N), while the third red is the switched live. That means the bottom two reds into common, the top left...

However, our debate started with the difference between 1-pole + N and double pole. To my knowledge, both types break line and neutral simultaneously but only the latter has current sensing in the neutral path, the former merely a mechanical switch.

There is one advantage to plug-in MCBs: you can safely reset a tripped one without turning off the main switch and killing power to the whole house. Very much not recommended with rewirable fuses.

Yes, current sensing on the neutral would only be necessary in case of both a dangerously high N-E voltage and a simultaneous N-E fault, along with sufficiently low loop impedance. I honestly have no idea what exactly was the reasoning back in the day, I only know I‘ve read historic regs that...

Thanks for the link! I‘m not sure I feel comfortable buying electrical accessories from AE though. If I ever actually need it I‘ll probably buy it locally once I‘m there or order one from a more reliable source.

The assumption is that a poorly earthed TT neutral can assume enough of a dangerous potential to require automatic disconnection in case of a neutral - earth fault, i.e. overcurrent sensing in the neutral path and/or RCD protection. Fusing the neutral, as in using a wire fuse, is certainly not a...

I suppose you could get around the lack of shutters by gluing the adaptor to the plug.

The fact that the whole name plate is in Chinese is another giveaway that this shouldn't have been sold in the UK (or anywhere else in Europe). Pretty much all travel adaptors are dubious to a degree, which is why I've collected a large number of international plugs over the years and made my...

With MCBs that's definitely the difference between 1P+N and DP. As I said, there's countries that have 133/230 V supplies, e.g. Belgium. I think the requirement for overcurrent protection of both live conductors is a matter of fault protection (i.e. L-E faults) rather than overload/short...

Not on the neutral, only on the live. Double pole means both poles have thermal and magnetic protection, which is necessary if you've got 230 V between two phases and some places require the neutral to be fused in TT installations.

1P+N usually means that the neutral is switched but doesn't have overload protection. At least that's what I've been told.

The travel adaptor they supplied (and the fact they even needed to include one) doesn‘t inspire much confidence in the quality of the kettle. These universal sockets accept almost any type of plug but none of them fit properly and safely.