Split CU - RCD on Upstairs downstairs

A friend living locally recently had a kettle failure resulting in the RCD in the Consumer unit tripping - nothing too surprising in that bit.

Now there is a sign on the CU saying that "This installation or part of it is protected by a device........etc etc etc"

The circuits in the house are kitchen, downstairs power, upstairs power, immersion heater, cooker, upstairs lighting and downstairs lighting.

Tripping of the RCD isolated the kitchen and downstairs power but not the lighting (seems sensible and happy with that) or upstairs power (surprised me) (don't know about the cooker and the immersion heater to be honest).

now I have previously seen CU laid out as follows

mcb|mcb|mcb|mcb|RCD|mcb|mcb|mcb|MAIN On/OFF

and on these it is clear which circuits are RCD protected and which are not - but in her case the layout is

Bell transformer|RCD|mcb|mcb|mcb|mcb|mcb|Main On/OFF

each MCB is clearly labelled but there is no clue as to which ones are RCD protected.

Is it normal/safe for upstairs power not the be RCD protected in this type of setup?

Should the Non RCD circuits be labelled?

The house dates from about 1990 and the electricals are all still thought to be original.

Reply to
Chris B
Loading thread data ...

I suppose it depends on the location of the main switch followed by the pos ition of any RCDs. My daughters new build has a split load CU. The main swi tch is on the left with an RCD immediately to the right followed by a numbe r of MCBs which are connected to that RCD. There is then another RCD follow ed by a number MCBs to the right of it these are connected to the second RC D. Upstairs lights and down stairs ring main are protected by one RCD likew ise are downstairs lights and upstairs ring main with the other RCD. In our bungalow the main switch is again on the left followed by the lighting MCB then an RCD and the remaining MCBs to the right of it are the only circuit s protected by the RCD.

Richard

Reply to
Tricky Dicky

Upstairs circuits are less likely to power equipment outside, so in that sense are lower risk. Also less likely to have kitchen upstairs with ready access to lots of earthed metalwork (and bathrooms usually don't have sockets). So in general the upstairs power circuit poses less of a shock risk.

Ideally.

Turn off the RCD and see what stops working - then you can label which ones are protected.

Reply to
John Rumm

Hi Chris

At the risk of insulting your mcb|mcb|mcb|mcb|RCD|mcb|mcb|mcb|MAIN On/OFF suggestion then it may be possible that the the RCD may actually a RCBO[1].

From a 1990 you might be looking at an Memshield RCBO or similar eg

formatting link

[1] Not strictly an RCBO in my opinion

And yes better labelling is IMHO needed.

Reply to
ARW

Given the age of the consumer unit and nature of the fault, I would suggest remove the cover and take some photos.

Reply to
Fredxxx

Ah OK thanks.

I will add some better labelling

Reply to
Chris B

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.