Discuss Intermittent rcd tripping help? in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum
Head straight to the main forums to chat by click here:   American Electrical Advice Forum

Ross1

-
Reaction score
16
Hi guys, I've got a customer who's rcd is tripping every few days.

Any tips on the process to follow cause it never trips while I'm there.

Ive tested the unit itself and it's working ok?

Thanks
 
Have you carried out a ramp test on the RCD?

Does it go off at roughly the same time of day?

Are they using a specific electrical item when it goes off (iron, outside light etc)?
 
Do a ramp test with everything disconnected to see if the RCD is operating well below 30mA. Use a earth leakage meter to see what level of leakage is normally present in the installation, if you don't have a meter do a ramp test with everything connected and operating as normal and the diff between the two is the leakage. If these don't show anything abnormal then you are down to getting the cust to log when it trips, day and time and trying to determnine what may have been turning on at that time. You could also try PAT testing all the usual suspects to see what their earth leakage is. Can also be a faulty RCD with little resistance to transients, very difficult to detect, you could try swapping it out and see if the replacement trips.
 
Thanks guys,

Customer has had the problem for about 18 months.

Has tripped during day when she gets home from work, at least once a week.

RCD tripped at 21mA when tested last week with everything connected?
 
I would be tempted to try replacing RCD to see if it fixes fault. Otherwise you are into testing everything that can operate during the day to see if it is causing a problem. Central heating boiler, pump, valves, washing M/C etc. It may just be a combination of circumstances. I am assuming insulation resistance is OK otherwise you would have a lower ramp test. Alternativly a power logger to see when it is tripping and if there is any mains interferance at that time.
 
It may be worth asking the client to keep a log of when the trips happens and what they did immediately before it tripped - you may see some form of pattern.

That said, changing the RCD seems sensible if its tripping at 21mA
 
I think I'd take a look at the fridge and freezer if it has auto defrost then check that usually has a heating element that gives up
 

Reply to Intermittent rcd tripping help? in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

Electrical Forum

Welcome to the Electrical Forum at ElectriciansForums.net. The friendliest electrical forum online. General electrical questions and answers can be found in the electrical forum.
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock