Electrical work?

[JohnW2]

Thank you for the link so basically any leakage in current round the circuit will trip the RCD to ensure the circuit is not live and to stop electrocution.

Sort-of. The RCD will disconnect the supply if there is any leak from the live side of the circuit to earth. If that leak occurs as a result of a fault (e.g. L somehow coming in contact with the earthed metal casing of an appliance), then the RCD will disconnect the supply, hopefully before anyone gets a chance to suffer a shock as a result of touching that casing. If a person is unlucky enough to get a shock by touching both L and earth simultaneously, the leakage current (this time, through their body) will, if large enough, cause the RCD to rapidly disconnect the supply, hopefully (but not necessarily) quickly enough to prevent the shock proving fatal. What an RCD can do nothing about is a shock resulting in someone simultaneously touching live and neutral, since there is then no leakage current to earth.

Kind Regards, John

 

[morpheus83uk]

Thank you that makes more sense. In the case of someone touching both live and neutral that would be because the circuit is still in place and thus the RCD is still registering 0 as no leakage has gone down the earth.

 

[JohnW2]

Thank you that makes more sense. In the case of someone touching both live and neutral that would be because the circuit is still in place and thus the RCD is still registering 0 as no leakage has gone down the earth.

Exactly. An RCD works by looking at the difference, if any, between the currents in the live and neutral. Under normal circumstances, they should be identical - so the difference is zero. If some current eaks from live to earth, instead of going through neutral, the RCD will see that the L current is slightly more than the N current. If that difference is greater than 30mA (0.03A), it will trip, thereby disconnecting the supply. However, if all the current going through a person is going from L to N (none to earth), then the RCD will see no difference between the L and N currents, and therefore will not trip.

Kind Regards, John

 

[morpheus83uk]

Thank you for that again. This is why I love this forum you can ask questions and get good answers and explanations so not only do you know what to do to fix the issue but why its an issue and why what your doing is safe and going to work! Every time I ask a question I always end up learning something as well its brilliant!

I have since changed the socket to a fused socket and everything is working fine. I replaced the fused from a 13A fuse to a 3A as previously discussed.

Thank you again for your help and explanations.

 

[JohnW2]

Thank you for that again. This is why I love this forum you can ask questions and get good answers and explanations so not only do you know what to do to fix the issue but why its an issue and why what your doing is safe and going to work! Every time I ask a question I always end up learning something as well its brilliant!

You're welcome - that's what the forum is (or is meant to be!!) for!

Kind Regards, John