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Plumber meets Electrician
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by timmp, September 10
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[Linked Image]


Joe Tedesco, NEC Consultant
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Shiney [Linked Image]. Is that a circuit breaker on the left side there? If so, that's a great idea and should be widely adopted to save me having to walk all of 30 feet to the panel to reset tripped breakers!

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djk Offline
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That doesn't look much like a breaker.

Are you sure it's not a data / phone socket of some sort?

Or even for remotely switched lighting? or some unusual application.

There are plenty of connectors in use that are specifically designed to be incompatable with the usual standards for security / safety reasons.


As for sockets with local fusing / breakers, they are sometimes used in office power distribution systems. Often, to prevent people from plugging in non-IT equipment into the office system.. e.g. heaters / vacuum cleaners. I've seen 10A fused sockets in the UK mounted under desks.

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 04-30-2005).]

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Quote
Are you sure it's not a data / phone socket of some sort?
I'd tend to side with DJK on that one, it sort of looks like an RJ-45 socket.
Also the markings around the socket itself tend towards a Data socket.
Personally, I'd have the CB at the supply end of the cable, it saves on CB's and it also means the whole circuit is protected.

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djk Offline
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I don't know about elsewhere, but MCBs tripping certainly isn't a frequent problem here. In fact, in 10 years I've only seen an MCB trip twice in this house and in both instances it was because workmen had overloaded a circuit by plugging in heavy powertools that were drawing more than 20A when their motors started.

In a well designed system the MCBs protect the circuits from overloading and there should be no reason to reset them on a regular basis unless you've got some kind of a design problem, faulty appliances or are over loading outlets.

The sollution to tripping MCBs is: install more circuits!

Our RCDs have tripped occasionally though and the usual culprets: The iron and the kettle when water's managed to get into the contacts somewhere and the live's shorting to the ground.

I've actually NEVER seen a BS1362 fuse in a plug blow here. Well, only once... and that was because it was connected to an appliance that drew close to 16A rather than 13A... The problem was solved by changing to a different type of plug and outlet.



[This message has been edited by djk (edited 05-01-2005).]

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On close inspection yes, it does look like an RJ45 or variant. And re: the breakers tripping, think "RCBO" [combined ground fault/regular circuit breaker to leftpondians [Linked Image] ]. I like the idea of them rather than a main ground fault breaker for the entire house, but with the British ring main system, even that level of separation is insufficient to prevent you thinking 'what tripped it NOW??'

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A blowing bulb often manages to trip a 6A MCB. I've had that happen twice in the last month or so.

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djk Offline
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Maybe that's why all of our lighting circuits are on 10A MCBs [Linked Image]

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Are your lights on a B or C curve MCB? I've seen nuisance tripping of lights MCBs when a 500W halogen outside light has been added on.

I've had 13A fuses go often enough. One example was when the door interlock in my washing machine wore through the plastic separating live and neutral across it's little delay heater and blew all the wires back to the plug!

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A blowing bulb often manages to trip a 6A MCB. I've had that happen twice in the last month or so.
Erm... being pretty close to the transformer I've had blowing light bulbs trip a 16A B breaker!

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