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.