Does a stove need to be on an earth leakage?

[Justloadit]

Agreed Ian, however one can not ignore being safety conscientious when dealing with people who have no clue what electricity is, and because they can not see it, they do not understand the dangers and risk involved.

[AndyD]

I'm also a firm believer you can't compile regs around trying to combat against user stupidity or abuse, but, I'm also not against improving the safety and user friendliness of an installation by installing RCBO's on every circuit, including lighting, stoves and geysers if they're a sensible option and reasonably priced.

[Dave A]

A past partner in my electrical contracting company had a theory that one of the reasons light circuits could be off earth leakage was that if you happened to get a shock while changing a light bulb, you're virtually guaranteed to break connection with the source of the shock.

I'm also a firm believer you can't compile regs around trying to combat against user stupidity or abuse, but, I'm also not against improving the safety and user friendliness of an installation by installing RCBO's on every circuit, including lighting, stoves and geysers if they're a sensible option and reasonably priced.

Hard to argue with great common sense - so I'm not even going to try

[Justloadit]

A past partner in my electrical contracting company had a theory that one of the reasons light circuits could be off earth leakage was that if you happened to get a shock while changing a light bulb, you're virtually guaranteed to break connection with the source of the shock.


Hard to argue with great common sense - so I'm not even going to try

It all depends on how high you are on a ladder.

A friend of mine, who manufacturers large transformers, a few years back was helping someone with his electric fence, and in the process shocked himself, fell off the ladder and landed on his head. Unfortunately he is now paralyzed and sits in a wheel chair.

If this had been a a typical installation with an earth leakage, then there would have been no shock and no disastrous accident

[AndyD]

Working at heights is another reason lighting should be considered high risk. It's true that any shock would possibly be a high resistance one via footwear, the step ladders and down the earth through the flooring, there's not usually much else in the vicinity that would be part of the equipotential zone unless you're unlucky enough to be holding the earthed body of the fitting whilst contacting the elevated voltage..

[Dave A]

Even if on earth leakage, you'll still get enough of a jolt to have some people falling off their ladder, folks

The solution to that hazard would be to insist on SELV or PELV only.

[ians]

The power shouldnt be on while working on a light fitting or any electrical for that matter. That is why we have circuit isolation/ lock out. A cowboy working on a live circuit shouldnt justify a standard adjustment, ie earth leakage just for a fool. The cowboys ahould be be charged for negligence if he doesnt die from his shocking experience 😏

[Justloadit]

Ians I hear you, but let me cite an example here.

Divorced mother with a 13 or 15 year old son, living in an apartment, and the lounge light pops. She asks her son to replace the globe. So he switches the light switch off, and climbs on a chair/table to replace the E28 globe. As he turns it, the glass breaks off from the base. He needs to change the globe because it is dark. Trusting that the electrician wired the place correctly, he would attempt to remove the base......... or does the divorced mother call in an electrician at R500 to replace the globe?

Does not make sense.

A lay person is under the impression that qualified artisans worked on the apartment when it was constructed, as should be the case.

[ians]

Ok...so the council should put the entire grid on earth leakage, but why. Anyone walked around squatter camps. Extension cords hanging from poles. More people die from illegal connections than people changing light bulbs. In fact exposed wiring at street light poles and CDU's which are accessible to toddlers never mind a 13 year old are very common sight.

[ians]

As it is common knowledge not to walk in the right hand of a freeway, so is the fact that electricity is dangerous. Thats why we have a law which makes the main switch accessible, less than 2.2 m and it isolates "both" live and neutral.

For the record how many people have died from electrocution changing a light bulb?