Welder

[tzd3sw]

Hi, Hopefully in the next few weeks I am going to aquire a electric welder. Now co-incidently I am in the process of re-wiring the garage. This is just a new 32A MCB (type B) in the RCD protected side of the consumer unit with a new ring with a couple of double sockets and SFCUs for the grinder and compressor. Now, am I likely to get a lot of nuisance tripping from the welder? Am I better off feeding it directly from the consumer unit 16A MCB (non RCD side) and fitting a dedicated RCD socket? Is it worth RCDing at all ? Secondly someone else has suggested using an industrial 16A (caravan style) socket dedicated for the welder. Is this worth the trip?

Not shure of the wattage of the welder but it presently runs from a standard 16A socket.

Thanks for any advice, Tim

[Andy Dingley]

Yes. Supply it without an RCD, certainly not a shared one, and use a type C MCB.

Domestic welders have low leakage currents, but a big oil-cooled one may be substantial.

Yes, if it's fused suitably. You may be OK with a square-pin domestic socket, but some brands may suffer from contact welding at high currents.

[Richard Savage]

I run an SIP Migmate 130 off a domestic 13 A socket without problem.

Rgds Richard