definition of earth leakage

[philsheriton]

just need a quick simple description of earth leakage have changed aconsumer board from an old wylex rewireable (the shower fuse had been updated to an mcb)on this board shower runs ok however on the new board with mcb's covered by a thity ma rccd it trips have rulled out any problems with the rccd but when i dissconect the rccd the shower runs fine. this either indicates to me earth leakage or possibel other problems with the shower, in simple terms define earth leakage , can i do any thing to correct the problem or will the shower need th be updated cheers phil s

 

[Mark.W]

Electric Current resulting from an Insulation Fault!

 

[Darkwood]

If the circuit tests ok with the shower disconnected then assume the shower is faulty common in old showers with element breakdown or water ingress, new shower in this case im afraid, earth leakage is a current flow to earth that shouldn't be there caused by (as mentioned above by brightspark) insulation breakdown or conductive foreign bodies or liquid creating a fault to earth.

What concerns me a weee bit is you have changed a consumer unit with a lack of basic understanding of fault currents. Should you be doing this work in the first place, your understanding of this issue is a must long before you start changing consumer units. Sorry to be blunt unless an apprentice then surely your supervisor should be guiding you on this issue.
Please correct me if im way of mark with my assumptions its just an impression you gave.