There have been lots of threads recently about problems with RCCBs tripping out. The advice has been to isolate different parts of the house circuitry to find out where the fault is. Where a fault is intermittent, but frequent enough to be a nuisance, this is not really practicable.
How would a trade electrician find the fault? Presumably there is test equipment? What is this, how much does it cost and where could I get it?
Peter Scott
Do a web search for PAT testing equipment, and also Meger test gear. These should give you a rough idea what's needed.
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 12:46:03 -0000, "Peter Scott" strung together this:
Depends where it is.
Yep.
Insulation tester, earth loop tester and RCD tester would be the complete test kit. The insulation tester would be the most useful if you only had one of them.
Cost, however much you want to spend.
Where,
You will also need to attend the C&G 2391 testing and inspection course to be able to fully understand the corect operation procedures of the equipment mentioned.
Probably better just getting an electrician in.
In these cases the most useful bit of kit would be a insulation resistance tester. These perform a resistance measurement but using a high voltage (500V or more). The voltage should help measure fault current paths that would normally be invisible at low voltage (i.e. if you performed the same measurement with a DMM).
An RCD tester may be of use in some situations to prove it is not the RCD (or RCBO) that is as fault.
You can often pick this stuff up on ebay.
However, the majority of the testing uses the same test gear in a low voltage/high current mode. This ensures the correct connections and impedences around the entire circuit. It can soon locate a break in a ring circuit that would not be apparent by functional testing. It can sometimes even locate a poorly terminated screw terminal, if the impedences are not in the correct ratio.
The high voltage insulation test is usually done at the end as a single test covering the entire installation (or at least circuit). You only isolate various parts and test further if it failed.
Christian.
Interesting to note that this outfit offers multifunction testers on rental for typically £8/day.
There is, but it's pricey. For 99% of the sort of faults you get which trip a RCD, an ordinary cheap DVM (5 quid or so) will suffice.
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 18:09:54 +0000, Andy Hall strung together this:
By the time you've added on delivery for both egs, insurance and some other stuff it turns out at nearer £75 per day, I tried it once with a PAT tester.
I see your point though.
The site
Peter Scott
It seems that the starting point to buy a complete set of testers (unless I've missed something) is around £650 net, a bit more for a multifunction single tester.
One would need to do quite a bit of testing on a DIY basis to justify this cost. I guess that on Ebay or something they would be a little less.
I invested in a combustion analyser (cost about £200 offer from BES about a year ago), which enables me to check and service my boiler. The payback on that will be in two years, so worth doing.
I wonder what would happen if one were to run the complete electrical tests on an installation and send a signed certificate to the BCO as part of a building notice........
Not Part P again.........Please !!!!
The initial outlay is only the start. Stuff like this needs to be periodically calibrated, and that isn't exactly cheap, although you can do certain confidence checks yourself.
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:27:22 +0000, Andy Hall strung together this:
Something like that. It's not cheap.
Yep, eBay would be the best place for a DIY set of testers. If you're using them for checks only, as opposed to actual testing for the filling out of certificates, then self calibration works well, if you know how.
If you were going to do that you may as well just fill in a cert. with some random results. If you know what you're doing you can generally tell what the results should roughly be.
You mean you don't want to talk about it? ;-)
That was mainly what I was thinking about. Do you happen to know a suitable Ebay section reference?
I was thinking more in terms of what their reaction would be. I suppose to ignore it.....
No !!!! Please !!!! No more Part P discussions !!!!! Ahhhhhh !!!!! :-)
Search for "megger", that will find you loads of kit. Cost me about 190 for a full set (insulation, loop impeadance, and RCD testers).
It is what I would do if I was submitting a building notice.
Christian.
This was my point, really - i.e. what would they do from the bureaucratic perspective with a certificate? Simply accept it, take your money and rubber stamp the paperwork or get somebody else to come and inspect?
They'd probably get hopelessly confused.
A switched on, but naughty, BCO might add you to his list of possible timesavers and stop inspecting in detail after the 2nd or 3rd acceptable inspection.
Christian.
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