RCD trips when neighbour mows his lawn.
We have just had an electrician round to check our electrics and he can find no problems. He performed several tests of which the following were his notes/results:
We estimate that the MK Sentry Consumer Unit is around about 15 years old.
TNCS System
External earth fault loop impedance
Ze = 0.15
Prospective short circuit current
1.5KA
RCD Trip 18MS
House Trip 17MS
Therefore RCD is GOOD
So he went to the meter box and started to pull in and out a few times a fuse, this tripped the RCD after about 2 attempts. Every time the RCD was reset it did it again. He repeated this about 4 times and the RCD tripped each time. He suspect that the RCD needs replacing.
Then the neighbours arrived home and decided to cut the grass. The electrician looked on with interest. The lawn mover was plugged in the garage as usual as that is where he keeps the mower. Would you adam and eve it? It did not trip….. However, after a couple of minutes mowing the plug in the mower came out and hey presto he tripped my RCD.
The electricians had a look at the neighbours fuse box and informed him that for his own safety he should get it changed as it is the old type that does not have an RCD. It was the one that was installed when the house was built about 23 years ago. At the very least he should get a plug-in RCD for his mower.
The electrician then went on to say that when he was playing with the fuse in my meter cupboard, he was simulating the mower tripping the RCD and suggests we get the RCD replaced at a cost of about £130 inclusive of fitting and vat.
Is this really necessary to stop the tripping of our RCD or could it be something else that needs to be addressed. And how do we stand with regards the neighbours not having an RCD.
Please help ! ! ! ! !
We have just had an electrician round to check our electrics and he can find no problems. He performed several tests of which the following were his notes/results:
We estimate that the MK Sentry Consumer Unit is around about 15 years old.
TNCS System
External earth fault loop impedance
Ze = 0.15
Prospective short circuit current
1.5KA
RCD Trip 18MS
House Trip 17MS
Therefore RCD is GOOD
So he went to the meter box and started to pull in and out a few times a fuse, this tripped the RCD after about 2 attempts. Every time the RCD was reset it did it again. He repeated this about 4 times and the RCD tripped each time. He suspect that the RCD needs replacing.
Then the neighbours arrived home and decided to cut the grass. The electrician looked on with interest. The lawn mover was plugged in the garage as usual as that is where he keeps the mower. Would you adam and eve it? It did not trip….. However, after a couple of minutes mowing the plug in the mower came out and hey presto he tripped my RCD.
The electricians had a look at the neighbours fuse box and informed him that for his own safety he should get it changed as it is the old type that does not have an RCD. It was the one that was installed when the house was built about 23 years ago. At the very least he should get a plug-in RCD for his mower.
The electrician then went on to say that when he was playing with the fuse in my meter cupboard, he was simulating the mower tripping the RCD and suggests we get the RCD replaced at a cost of about £130 inclusive of fitting and vat.
Is this really necessary to stop the tripping of our RCD or could it be something else that needs to be addressed. And how do we stand with regards the neighbours not having an RCD.
Please help ! ! ! ! !