Victor - Knowledge is a blessing or a curse, your current circumstances make you decide!
Solar pumping, Solar Geyser & Solar Security lighting solutions - www.microsolve.co.za
As with the example using the 15 year old, how does a 5 year old know the difference between a loose illegal wire left exposed on the ground and certified one.
Comments are based on opinion...not always facts....that's why people use an alias.
Responsibility lays with the parent/property owner.
If the said property is constructed under legal specifications, one would assume that the hired artisan is actually qualified in the respective trade, and not pretending to be when accepting payment an issuing certificates.
On the other hand, a shack, to start off with does not fall under any building regulations, and any electrical connection made would fall outside the COC as it could never be a legal structure in the first place.
Victor - Knowledge is a blessing or a curse, your current circumstances make you decide!
Solar pumping, Solar Geyser & Solar Security lighting solutions - www.microsolve.co.za
Our oven is tripping the earth leakage. This doesn't happen immediately, but only after a while, while the oven is warming up. Yesterday I did a test and switch off all other circuit breakers except the mains, earth leakage and the oven. Just to eliminate other influences. Switched on the oven to 180 degrees. After a few minutes, it tripped earth leakage. Reset the breaker and after few minutes, tripped again. It reached the temperature, I put in muffins in the oven, baked it for 30 minutes, and it didn't trip again.
I had an electrician out at our place and explained to him what happens and he suggested (without testing anything) just to buy a new oven. He indicated that it can be the switch or the thermostat or the element and we can replace one by one but we might still have the problem and its just easier to replace the oven.
No I need a second opinion as the 2x tripping while warming up don't really justify getting a new oven, unless I'm wrong? I understand the problem is that somewhere in the circuit there is current leaking and can cause electrical shock, but can't this be traced to the exact component causing the problem?
Your assistance would appreciated.
It sound to me that the element is what is causing the tripping of the earth leakage.
Depending on what type of oven it is, it could be either the bake or the grill element, but it is normally the bake element on the bottom of the oven.
With the element expanding and contracting through usage, the element shroud gets hairline cracks it it and moisture enters the element, when heating up the trapped moisture causes an earth fault, but after a while, because the element gets hot the and the crack opens up, because of expansion, the moisture can escape, thus the tripping problem stops.
This wouldn't eliminate all other influences unless the circuit breakers are double pole (SP+N).
Not sure why he wouldn't do some tests to localise the fault and prove the supply circuit is okay. He's not done his job so I hope he didn't charge you.
Yes, the fault could lie with any of the components mentioned but it's highly unlikely. The most likely candidate by far is the actual element but some basic testing would be the way to go before blindly replacing parts or the entire oven without knowing for sure where the fault is.
Yes it can be traced by any competent sparky who isn't in such a rush or so lazy he doesn't want to run some tests.
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phillyza (07-Dec-16)
What Lionels said.
That electrician you got sounds to be very lazy.
There is a thing we call fault finding. It's tripping so lets go and find out the origin of the problem.
Look if your oven is broken, old and looks the part to be replaced, then by all means do so. I would look firstly at the elements, those who tend to get a bit of moisture / splatter from baking & cooking. Do insulation tests on them and move on from there. It could even be the supply cable to the oven that is the problem.
We had a client which complained that as soon as they used the iron the earth leakage would trip.
So they replaced the iron. About 4 irons later, each more expensive than the last, they asked that we come to separate the circuits on the house cause with original installation they wired everything underneath earth leakage. So creating a essential side and non-essential side, everything still under earth leakage, the iron tripped a earth leakage again. Luckily not the rest of the house, fridge/freezer etc. cause of the separation.
So we went to do fault finding and eventually after making sure nothing is plugged in and having done an insulation resistance test, found there was a problem on the circuit. We then disconnected all the plug sockets and found that the one where the iron was plugged into had moisture in the back, possibly damp rising (and the rest of the sockets on the same outside wall) Luckily the wire supplying the circuit was fine.
So yes, you might change the oven, but the problem could also be with the rest of the circuit feeding the oven. Good place to start, the elements and then work your way back to the origin of the supply.
Do i need to connect my stove from protected neutral or from unprotected and why?
The stove circuit is not required by law to have a protected supply. Provided you have a good earth connection it is safe to disconnect it from the earth leakage. I would however suggest you rather determine which element is faulty and just replace that one yourself. Because the fault is in all likelihood a hairline crack as already explained you can determine which one is faulty by process of elimination. Switching them on one by one. If your oven has preheat it will switch on more than one element so do not use that setting.
Here is an interesting situation for you.
My oven bake element started tripping earlier this year. Bake element. I got the replacement and fitted it. Worked for a while and started tripping again. But only randomly. Not every time. Plus when it trips it will work immediately again and only trip later.
I thought it must be the top bake/grill combination one this time.
Did some testing by disconnecting and running them etc. Turns out it is the bake one again, hardly used.
But during my testing I tried running the oven off an extension cable from my garage DB (3 phase E/L 30mA) and it never tripped.
House DB was the old Heinemann 3 phase 20mA sensitivity type.
There was also one week here where the whole neighbourhood was on low voltage (220v down to 200v over the normal 240v to 230v range, fault was eventually found to be Brightwater Commons when the whole area blacked out one night). During this time the oven didn't trip the house E/L once.
So knowing the E/L was old I changed it yesterday to a new 3 phase 30mA one. More for safety than for the oven issue (it wasn't always disconnecting all phases when it tripped).
Oven still tripping the house board last night. Got the extension out and back to garage DB and it was fine.
Tested voltage at oven terminals on house board. 240v.
On different phase from garage board the voltage over the extension dropped to 220v at oven terminals.
So this morning some more tests.
Removed oven earth and tested earth to oven chassis voltage when hot. 115v. Touched earth wire to oven chassis and trip.
I tried a hard wiring to the garage board with a temp cable.
Finally the garage board tripped!
It seems the element will work fine as long as the voltage goes no higher than 220v!
But it is definitely faulty so must be changed AGAIN this year.
Just posting this for your interest because it is such a strange turn of events.
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