RCD Tripping?????

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I'm working on a large garden lighting project.....

I have x8 circuits all 16A C type breakers.

The main switch is a 100A 30mA RCD.

When i turn on more than about x5 circuits the RCD trips.

I've tested the trip times of the RCD at 1/2 1 and 5 times at 0 and 180 degrees all is fine.

I've calculated the diversity and all falls below 100A using the 66% calculation total of all the 16A breakers.

Each circuit consists of low voltage and mains voltage lighting.

What i can't work out is why the RCD trips when i put on the breakers in no particular order...this does not help as if there is a fault i cannot work out which circuit is causing it?

Why would the RCD trip randomly and not on a particular breaker??????

Any ideas????

Cheers

Alex
 
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I've calculated the diversity and all falls below 100A using the 66% calculation total of all the 16A breakers.

That should not make difference to operation of RCD

Have you checked IR?

Nuetral - Earth fault springs to mind.
 
Is the wiring new?
Are the joints/terminations new?
What were the IR results?
How many lights?

Could be cumultive leakage.
 
It could be but most of the lights in the circuit are low voltage and even the mains just use Phase and Neutral.....there are however about x6 lights that are quite large and use Phase Neutral and CPC....could be one of those i guess.....

IR????
 
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Some of the junction boxes are new so worth checking these...........and all the connections....
 
Sorry miles away.............

Did insulation resistance tests at 250 and 500 and all showed good readings >99 then >299 @ 500....
 
I've got a small multimeter that can read in Milliamps......so tell me what to do next????

Cheers

Alex
 
What was the reason for using an RCD?
The reasons for an RCD to trip are usually associated with an earth leakage or something which is mis wired i.e bypassing the RCD on one side.
 

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