Should Neutral touching Earth trip RCD when MCB is off

[thevdm]

Hi all, I had a go at moving a socket from one side of a wall to the other and noticed that the neutral touching the earth trips the RCD.

I've not noticed this before, I am assuming that all neutrals are tied together in the CU and the return from the other circuits are creating a potential difference between neutral and earth of at least 30mA.

Is this how it should be and I've just not noticed it yet?

If all is good I'll have another go at moving the socket when I have daylight so I can just flip the power at the RCD instead.

 

[AndyPRK]

yeah that is normal

 

[thevdm]

yeah that is normal

Thank you, I'll continue with daylight, or at least after getting the lead light out the loft as the rest of the sockets have a different RCD.

 

[bernardgreen]

.

 

[thevdm]

That makes sense, I forgot that the RCD trips based on a difference between live and neutral. Shorting them effectively creates a return path avoiding the sensor. At least I know the RCD works

 

[AndyPRK]

wait till daylight !

 

[thevdm]

I reconnected the old socket for now, no loose wires hanging around here