RCD Testing Lighting circuits

[jlspam1]

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:-

1. 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.

1. 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.

2. 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?

[Dave Liquorice]

I tempted to say, oh sod it I'll say it anyway, if this is a worry to you are you actually up to doing the wiring changes in the first place?

[John Rumm]

Making up a test lead would be my prefered solution, saves any problem with the test socket being used inappropriately later. Does your tester have a IEC socket to connect its mains lead? If you its quite easy to make a lead.

Seems a little excessive especially since you are in effect using one RCD per circuit.

[jlspam1]

Unfortunately not, else that would of easily been my preferred solution, its a fixed connection. So any fly lead I make would need to be on a female inline socket. Thats not really a problem though. I'd just need to meet GS38 on clips/probes and ensure the earth is cream for "functional" earth if I remember those regulations correctly (and you can be damn sure I'll check carefully first). Still the tester certainly works - its an older model though so I manually need to set phase, 50%,100% based on rating etc. It will be interesting to see how its measurements match up to the cal unit from my friendly competant - the last cal on this unit was a couple of years ago. No doubt the previous owner moved to one of those switch auto testing ranging ones. At least if I make up a fly lead that might make testing easier in some circumstances.

Any other comments welcomed.

J.

[Andy Wade]

Not necessarily: you could cut off the 13 A plug and fit a flying male IEC connector. Then use a bog standard IEC mains cordset for testing socket circuits and make up an IEC(f) to croc clips or test prods lead for use elsewhere. It's the sharp end of the latter lead which you should make GS38-compliant.

I've not seen that on test equipment. I bought a new Megger loop tester last year (LTW325) and that uses red for phase and plain green (not grn/ylw) for earth.

[<me9]

I have an iec lead to an old connector that fits bayonet lampholders (and a croc clip earth lead) for use on lighting circuits.

[Andy Wade]

50:50 chance of getting the polarity wrong, and just turn it round if you do, presumably? No use for polarity testing though.