As part of the on going rewiring of my house, I have a question about RCD testing.
I have not actually changed any wiring in the house* as such, but I changed the CU and I am in the process of fitting RCBOs across all the circuits in the straight switch box - I thought I'd go 17th compliant as it seemed more sensible. Besides that configuration makes sense.
*(well, I'm also in the process of fitting rather more equipotential bonding then was fitted beforehand)I can (and have) test all the RCBOs on on the mains circuits with my tester, but my tester has only a 13A sytle plug adapter for testing mains circuits (is an older unit cheap off fleabay, but it makes me feel more comfortable that the whole system is working correctly before I pay my friendly competant to test the whole installation with test gear that is in cal).
Buying a new tester is not an option, and any with fly leads for lighting circuits will be beyond any price I deem reasonable for my "peace of mind" testing. I see three options:-
- fit a socket on the lighting circuit in near to the consumer unit and mark it up as "LIGHTING CIRCUIT FOR RCD TESTING RBCO No2" or something equivalent and then use my RCD tester on that.
- get an female in line 13A extension cable socket and then make up a fly adapter of my own to allow my to test lighting circuit. More fiddly this and much more prone to possible problems - I've got to say I'm not so keen on this idea.
- Use on the the test button on the front and wait for my friendly competant. I'm not so keen on this either - the test button cannot tell me under what imbalance or how fast the RCD worked.
So, if I fit a socket near to the consumer unit (one for each lighting circuit) and label them up accordingly this seems to be the best solution for my particular needs. But that would certainly seem an unsual solution.
(and all this before I even light a floorboard, sigh - so much more to do)
Any comments?