When were 30ma RCD's required on caravan sites?

[ericmark]

My oldest BS7671 is the blue cover 412-06 referred to 30ma and was referenced with 608-13-05 although I will admit it could be easy miss read as also there was a reference to 413-02-18 to 413-02-20 which was no more than 50 volt at 5 seconds. So at the time readers may have considered with a PME supply a 100ma RCD was good enough but with hind sight I realise in June 2001 caravan sites needed 30ma RCD protection.

However when did this come in? Was it before or after the regulations became BS7671?

Also when did the ELCB-v become outlawed? Came across one last year still in use in a farm.

The discussion was about caravans being about the only time where two 30ma RCD's are put one after the other and I said it was belt and braces approach in case site owners had not got around to fitting RCD's of 30ma. One guy said we were allowed 100ma on sites with 16th Edition hence question as reading mine it would be easy to miss read and think you could use a 100ma and only on more careful reading did it become clear it was 30ma.

So now not sure if miss read all those years ago or if pre-2001 100ma could be used?

 

[ricicle]

So at the time readers may have considered with a PME supply a 100ma RCD was good enough but with hind sight I realise in June 2001 caravan sites needed 30ma RCD protection.

Was PME ever permitted for caravan hook-ups ?

 

[Spark123]

My yellow cover regs (1997) require a 30mA device, there is a line next to the requirement so something changed but may as been as trivial as an addition of EN numbers to the allowable RCDs.

 

[ericmark]

So at the time readers may have considered with a PME supply a 100ma RCD was good enough but with hind sight I realise in June 2001 caravan sites needed 30ma RCD protection.

Was PME ever permitted for caravan hook-ups ?

I don't think it was but the wording was rather poor and it would be easy to have miss read the regulations.

608-13-05 Socket-outlets shall be protected individually, or in groups of not more than three, by a residual current device complying with BS 4293. BS EN 61008-1 or BS EN 61009-1 and having the characteristics specified in Regulation 412-06 and must not be bonded to the PME terminal.
For a PME supply the protective conductor of each socket-outlet circuit shall be connected to an earth electrode and shall comply with Regulations 413-02-18 to 413-02-20.

To my mind that was saying the PME earth should not be used and that an earth electrode forming a TT supply was required. If an earth rod is connected to a PME supply without disconnecting the PME earth then it is an extraneous-conductive-part rather than an earth electrode but reading the regulation I think it would be easy for an electrician to read is as saying the PME earth and earth rod should both be connected.

Also 412-06 refers to 30ma but 413-02-18 to 413-02-20 refers to RCD which stops the voltage above earth from exceeding 50 volt which in the main meant using a 100ma trip.

Having now read the 17th it is plain 30ma was required but without the benefit of hind sight it would have been easy to have miss read this regulation.

It comes down also to old question of complying with previous edition.
1) Without copies of previous editions how does one know it complied.
2) How previous can the edition be.
There have been only three editions of BS7671 but 17 editions of wiring regulations.

Also is it edition or editions with the former it has to comply with BS7671:2001 with latter could be BS7671:1992 or edition number then edition goes back to 1991 and editions goes all the way back to 1882.

Clearly we are not going back to 1882 so nothing before 1991 could be accepted however we read on the Electrical Safety Councils web site of how to deal with lighting without earth wires and that goes back to 1962 so to my reckoning should be long ago outlawed.

I do think there is a difference between commercial and domestic and although with domestic we may let compliance with 1962 rules go this would not be the case with commercial premises and caravan sites in the main are commercial premises.

However thanks to "Spark123" we know 30ma was required back in 1997 so why do we really require 30ma RCD's in a caravan when there is one already on the site supply?

 

[securespark]

Hi eric

As I understand it, PME has never been allowed for caravan supplies.

The Voltage Operated ELCB's were deleted from the 15th Ed. in 1985.