RCD tripping

[dogrover]

Hi ,My friend has asked me if i could pop round and look at his electrics, he is telling me , when he switches on the garage lights , the rcd in the house trips, the garage lights are on a 6A circuit ,with 32A radial sockets on a 4way board with rcd in the garage, this is fed from the main board in the house spilt load, its on a 32A mcb (non rcd side), the lights in the garage are 10 double fluorescent 1800mm

any ideas ? crossed neutral, faulty rcd in house, to many fluorescent starting at one time

 

[Steve]

1400 watts of fluorscent is more than a 6amp MCB would normally be able to handle. If the circuit's up to it, up this to 10amps, and split the lights onto 2 switches. Disconnect half of the lights, if this helps, then splitting it may well work.

 

[JohnD]

the lights in the garage are 10 double fluorescent 1800mm

what's he growing in there?

 

[RF Lighting]

Has the fault just appeared all on its own, or has it been like this since the lights were installed / modified?

Steve, overcurrent will not trip an RCD

 

[Steve]

Steve, overcurrent will not trip an RCD

I know, but lots of fluoresents can do funny things. But you'r probably right Rob, 5h1te DIY wiring.

 

[dogrover]

i just spoke to him, his father in law fitted the spilt board , he said that it started happening after the new board was fitted, before that, he just had plug in mcb's , in an old re wirable board

 

[RF Lighting]

For starters it is very poor design to have both lights and sockets protected by the same RCD.

This does not mean just take the lights off the RCD. You still need to find and repair the fault.

 

[Taylortwocities]

i just spoke to him, his father in law fitted the spilt board , he said that it started happening after the new board was fitted, before that, he just had plug in mcb's , in an old re wirable board

Well, I hope his father in law complied with Part P and notified LABC
He obviously not competent to have done this work......

The obvious things are he has put a neutral on the wrong neutral busbar or has left the link between the two neutral busbars.

 

[DESL]

i just spoke to him, his father in law fitted the spilt board , he said that it started happening after the new board was fitted, before that, he just had plug in mcb's , in an old re wirable board

Sounds like there was an earth leakage fault which may have pre existed but new CU with RCD has detected it and done it's job.

The number of times I've heard "we never had a problem until you fitted that new fangled fuse box" I am talking about faults on appliances that never showed up until ne CU was fitted.

And did FIL do insulation tests prior to fitting spilt 'sic' board?

 

[securespark]

Wonder if he mopped it up?