Does cold weather affect RCD's?

down2earth · Dec 17, 2009

Does anyone know if cold weather can affect RCD's, I have just been testing the 63A 30mA RCD in the garage, this previously tested absolutely fine when doing the test at 30mA, but now it fails to trip in under 400ms, however when doing the 5x test it is fine

, the test button works fine when pressed. The temperature is very low out there at the moment and I wondered if this could have an effect.

Thanks

Down2Earth

sivoodoo · Dec 17, 2009

Im not sure, will be interested to find out. I do beleive most things are tested to work between certain temperature extremes and I dont see why an RCD would be any different, though I am thinking it would have to be very low indeed to affect opperation. Lets see what the pros have to say.

Sintra · Dec 17, 2009

Rcd's can be affected by temperature and humitidy.

When PIR testing a caravan park in winter with the DB's enclosed in outdoor brick enclosures less than 5% worked properly.

Solution to this was to install a 60W tubular heater in each enclosure. Retested after heaters where installed for 2 weeks and 95% worked properly.