Thread: Earth Leakage Safety Switch

They don't just plug in. Get a sparky to do it and he'll supply a safety certificate for the job.
I'll PM a comparitive price to you later.

regards
Mick

Its a sparkies job.
best money you'll ever spend.

Saved my wife when she stood on an extension cord that evidently had a short in it. Thing went BANG, the power cut out in a poofteenth flat, and wifes foot was blackened with sooty stuff as was the floor. She lived though.



On second thoughts... how well do you get on with yours.....

Originally Posted by VladTepes

....On second thoughts... how well do you get on with yours.....

Once you get it done, there'll be no "drop the hairdryer in the bath" trick any more.

Unfortunately my wife has the reflexes of a cat and manages to catch the hairdryer before it hits the water

Got evap air con fitted to the house today and part of the job was to fit earth leakage. I always thought there was just one that covered the whole house but apparently no longer. Now one goes in to replace the circuit breaker on each line - normally the power points. So I got the electrician to also put on the second powerpoint circuit as well. So, I now have earth leakage on the two powerpoint circuits but not lights, water heater, or stove.

I asked why they do not do one to cover the whole house and he indicated that is how it used to be done but no longer - the ones he fitted were the same size as a circuit breaker.

Garry

Having seperate ELCB is a good thing. It helps you localise and identify the problem appliance without shutting off the rest of the house.

At work we have them on each bedspace, in fact our ED and ICU are cardiac protected a level higher than the ordinary ELCB. You'll have to ask a sparky what the specific differences are, but it means that all our equipment and the areas themselves have to be re-certified each year.

Normal ELCB's trip at 30mA detected earth leakage. Hospitals and other selected industrial areas (such as wet areas) trip at 10mA detected earth leakage.
One ELCB for the house was simple for the installer. One active to earth fault detected and the whole house tripped off.
It is much better that each circuit is individually protected so that your viewing of 4WD TV is not interupted when the missis drops the hairdryer into the hand basin.

Have to agree that having a separate RCD (ELCB/RCCB call it what you want) helps in the convenience stakes, having the whole house trip because you have a slightly dodgy fridge is a big pain in the whatsits.

I have an earth leakage circuit breaker on each circuit in the house except the HWS and to the sub-board in my shed. A few months back when lightning struck the ground very close nearby it blew the main fuse (80Amp) into the powerboard and tripped the earth leakage CBs. It also did some damage in the shed - scorching a few switches and blowing a fluoro tube apart.
The integral energy guy who replaced the main fuse said that the earth leakage CBs had protected the house appliances from damage. The neighbours weren't so lucky - lots of damaged appliances. He said that he had also seen some circuit breakers blown off powerboards that day.