Residential Park Home 30mA Additional RCD Protection

[Bradley6969]

Hello all,

Would anyone help me with this problem please.

Recently done some electrical upgrade works on a residential park home site.

We have replaced some electrical distribution boards around site as the most recent electrical installation condition report was unsatisfactory due to numerous codes and observations.

With replacing these each park home is now individually protected by the means of an 30mA RCBO to satisfy regulations.

Reg. 708.415.1 - Every final circuit supplying a caravan pitch or residential park home must be protected individually by a ≤ 30 mA RCD that disconnects all live conductors (double-pole)

The issue we have is some of the park homes are tripping with accumulative earth leakage. There is also a solar company who are doing work and some of the park homes only trip when these are energised. Some park homes are in a really bad state and need a lot of work to get the internals upto standards.

As you can imagine all of these are older residents and don’t understand as it’s never tripped before we did any work….

Is there anyway we can omit the 30mA protection and potentially install 100mA time delayed protection if we can ensure each circuit within the internal park home has adequate protection on each circuit?

I have asked the NICEIC for some additional advice but yet to heard from them.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[James]

It is not unusual for a distribution circuit to power several caravans, this could be protected by a time delay rcd if required or it may be ok to omit rcd protection in some circumstances.
However the individual caravans should have their own 30mA 30mS rcd to protect them.
It is normally mounted in an enclosure next to the caravan.

Unless you are powering several caravans from a single rcd, you should not be having issues with cumulative leakage. If a van is tripping the rcd then it is a fault that needs investigation.

Outside lights are one of the most likely points of failure, when they get enough water inside them, they can create a high resistance N to E link.
This creates an issue that may trip the rcd even if the light is off but other things are turned on.

 

[littlespark]

No. The regs state 30mA, so you have to put in 30mA….

This must be a really old site if the park or the units don’t already have rcd protection.


Rcd or RCBO? It may not be earth leakage, but simple overload. Elderly people that live in caravans do love their home comforts…. Such as a dozen plug in heaters, quick boil kettles, foreman grill, and the new thing of air fryers.

As above, outside lights…. But also sneaky extension leads running out to a Keter plastic shed housing a freezer, or similar.


10 years running a site has shown me some nightmares when it comes to customers and their expectations.

 

[baldelectrician]

I would always go for a seperate RCD and MCB, then you can differentiate between a fault to earth and a simple overload more easily

 

[littlespark]

It seems strange that the PV is affecting the RCDs. I’d want to ramp test those RCDs and find out what the tripping current actually is.

 

[James]

It seems strange that the PV is affecting the RCDs. I’d want to ramp test those RCDs and find out what the tripping current actually is.

Local PV will increase the voltage by reducing the current coming in to the site and therefore the volt drop.
it could make the difference between something tripping and something not??

 

[Bradley6969]

No. The regs state 30mA, so you have to put in 30mA….

This must be a really old site if the park or the units don’t already have rcd protection.


Rcd or RCBO? It may not be earth leakage, but simple overload. Elderly people that live in caravans do love their home comforts…. Such as a dozen plug in heaters, quick boil kettles, foreman grill, and the new thing of air fryers.

As above, outside lights…. But also sneaky extension leads running out to a Keter plastic shed housing a freezer, or similar.


10 years running a site has shown me some nightmares when it comes to customers and their expectations.

Yes we have installed individual 30mA RCBOs for each park home as per the regulations.

The sites are really old and would benefit from a re-wire but unfortunately all recent inspection and testing indicated the cabling condition for the distribution to be more than adequate.

It is defiantly earth leakage as have clamped tested for both and this is tripping on accumulative leakage. The ramp test on the RCBOs are 21mA so doesn’t give much room.

Our issue is that as they have never tripped previous of our remedial works and this is causing a problem for the site managers with the elderly residents.

Our remit doesn’t include the internals within the park homes so can only advise so much and is down to each owner to rectify but we can’t leave them without power.

 

[littlespark]

You cant leave them without power.... but more importantly, you have to do the job to the latest regulations.


Like i said before, these must be really old units if they didn't come supplied with a 30mA RCD mainswitch in their individual consumer units. Many other sites would have demanded them be changed by now, surely.

Can I ask.... are these like static caravans? 30 odd foot long, 10 or 12 foot wide on a 16A supply?.... or something more substantial if used as a residential park home?


FYI, The site i worked on was owned by my father in law. We didnt have an age limit on the vans, but we did have a condition limit. A lot of the other sites around had a 10 year limit...
When he sold up, the new owners of the site introduced an age limit, basically wiping out half of the customer base

 

[James]

Yes we have installed individual 30mA RCBOs for each park home as per the regulations.

The sites are really old and would benefit from a re-wire but unfortunately all recent inspection and testing indicated the cabling condition for the distribution to be more than adequate.

It is defiantly earth leakage as have clamped tested for both and this is tripping on accumulative leakage. The ramp test on the RCBOs are 21mA so doesn’t give much room.

Our issue is that as they have never tripped previous of our remedial works and this is causing a problem for the site managers with the elderly residents.

Our remit doesn’t include the internals within the park homes so can only advise so much and is down to each owner to rectify but we can’t leave them without power.

This is one of those situations where it is difficult for everyone involved.

the site owner has a duty to provide a safe electrical supply to the caravan units.

the electrician has a duty to install things to the latest regulations.

the caravan owners have no requirement to keep there installation up to the latest standards (unless included in the terms of service)

one way for the owners to calm the situation would be for them to suggest to the residents that if they have an electrical installation check done and it turns out to show no faults then they will pay for it.
if faults are found then the costs will be sent to the caravan owners including the cost of the inspection.

 

[littlespark]

I’m sure there’s something in the licensing or contracts that the units themselves should be tested and proved to be safe to be allowed on a site….. so it’s down to the individual owners to bring things up to scratch…..

 

[Bradley6969]

Yeah it’s a difficult one as personally I believe the regulation to be outdated with the amount of electrical equipment these days…. but I’m all for the system being as safe as possible.

They actually all have 40A supplies so more than enough power so it’s no issue with overloading.

The problem is the internals on some of these as you suggest haven’t been tested for years if at all and still have 3036 fuse boards still in use so our new equipment is doing its job.