Discuss USB sockets earth leakage question 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

stuarth

-
Arms
Reaction score
84
I have a customer who has been providing all the accessories for their renovation a real mix of manufacturers and styles, we arrived to second fix and swap existing faceplates to find that every single socket both single and double had usb ports. My question is will these USB ports all potentially produce earth leakage regardless of wether they are carrying a load or will they only leak when being used?
 
Having seen quite a few teardown videos on these things I would be very surprised if they leaked anything as I can't recall seeing any that have a connection to earth.

Leakage from electronics will I believe only occur when the case is earthed and/or one part of the power supply is referenced to earth, or it contains filtering/surge management that is linked to earth.
 
Having seen quite a few teardown videos on these things I would be very surprised if they leaked anything as I can't recall seeing any that have a connection to earth.

Leakage from electronics will I believe only occur when the case is earthed and/or one part of the power supply is referenced to earth, or it contains filtering/surge management that is linked to earth.
How does the USB supply regulate voltage?
 
It's not necessary to have a connection to earth to regulate voltage. They are switched mode power supplies that produce a potential difference of 5v between the USB power pins... that's all that's needed for them to be useful.
That’s all well and good.
Have you examined these particular items and read the technical data sheet?
 
That’s all well and good.
Have you examined these particular items and read the technical data sheet?

Actually before posting, I was trying to find detailed technical information about them so I could provide a response to the question that was grounded in fact.

Unfortunately detailed technical information about such matter appears to be a bit thin on the ground as I wasn't able to find anything about MK or BG USB sockets.

But I don't have to have examined them personally, like I said I've seen enough teardowns of these to know that they in general have no connection to earth (just the same as your average USB plug-in charger and even a lot of laptop chargers) therefore they are unlikely to produce earth leakage issues since they cannot introduce any kind of potential or current flow into a conductor they have no connection to. Seems to be fairly common sense to me.
 
My problem, is that I don’t know the make of the sockets the OP is using, don’t know how they operate, so can’t really say whether there will be earth leakage or how much it will be.
 
Thanks to all the responses you have answered my question, it seams there will only be a potential issue when they are in use. As to the make of sockets they vary from makes I have never heard of to LAP :eek:, they love to shop on the internet.
The customer is a absolute nightmare of not listening to any advice and changing their minds as to whats going where and constantly adding more work, more circuits etc soooo glad I insisted on hourly rate rather than fixed price, the original job was to move a few lights a couple of new spots and 6 new sockets, we have now been on site for 3 weeks in total:D
 
And another plus point; you will be able to make all that money twice over again when you go back to replace what they supplied...
I now actually encourage customers to source their own materials, mainly to observe the look on their face when I explain the lack of any guarantee on the material side
 
And another plus point; you will be able to make all that money twice over again when you go back to replace what they supplied...
I now actually encourage customers to source their own materials, mainly to observe the look on their face when I explain the lack of any guarantee on the material side
I love telling em there’s no guarantee on materials.....saves me a load of stress :)
 
I hope you knew from the outset that every single socket was going to be USB, and charged accordingly, since you’re going to have to disconnect and wago the line on them all to do a L-N I.R. test. Rather time consuming for every single socket.
 
I hope you knew from the outset that every single socket was going to be USB, and charged accordingly, since you’re going to have to disconnect and wago the line on them all to do a L-N I.R. test. Rather time consuming for every single socket.
No idea there would be any USB's, every time we turn up theres something more on the list, we arrived on Monday to detailed instructions on laying out the UFH complete with diagrams ffs, the customer has no idea on lighting over kill on the amount of lights per room despite advice from me and the builder and now they have started on garden lighting including RGB strobe flood lights.
 
I have a customer who has been providing all the accessories for their renovation a real mix of manufacturers and styles, we arrived to second fix and swap existing faceplates to find that every single socket both single and double had usb ports. My question is will these USB ports all potentially produce earth leakage regardless of wether they are carrying a load or will they only leak when being used?
Possible but would think to small to matter, good case for fitting a consumer unit with individual RCBOs
 

Reply to USB sockets earth leakage question 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