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    earth leakage tripping issue

    Being an electrician...they say our houses would have the worse wiring

    Anyway i have had a tripping issue and just havent had a chance to get around to sorting it out...for some reason the earth leakage unit in my house would trip for no apparent reason...i would just reset the unit and walla the power is back on...no need to drop the circuit breakers to identify the circuit causing a problem...then my office/workshop earth leakage started tripping for no apparent reason.

    a couple days ago i reset the e/l unit...the lights started to flicker...huh ...now i am confused...e/l unit stayed up...went out to the workshop checked the e/l unit ...it hadnt tripped.

    switch everything off and reset...got the multi meter out and checked the voltage...230 volts L-N and L-E ...no problem...yet all the lights i switched on in the house were flickering...a couple minutes later it stopped...i always tell my customers...if they notice the lights flickering...call the electricity department and report a fault...there is a good chance the neutral has a bad connection and is about to break...so i decided to take a walk outside and check the pole connection...an easy problem to detect...the pole was on fire

    So we call the electricity department and report the pole on fire...i am told they will attend to it within 24 hours...the response i expected...and as we know from previous fires ...it doesnt help calling the Durban fire department because they dont have a direct link to the electricity department (of all the dumb things i have heard) where we had 3 fire engines with 10 firemen sitting waiting 3 hours waiting for someone to try get hold of the electricity department to get them to switch off the power so we could isolate the power to put out the fire.

    Eventually the fire burnt out and power was restored later that day.

    The good news...i havent had an e/l unit trip since...something to check the next time you have a random tripping e/l unit.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ians View Post
    Being an electrician...they say our houses would have the worse wiring

    Anyway i have had a tripping issue and just havent had a chance to get around to sorting it out...for some reason the earth leakage unit in my house would trip for no apparent reason...i would just reset the unit and walla the power is back on...no need to drop the circuit breakers to identify the circuit causing a problem...then my office/workshop earth leakage started tripping for no apparent reason.

    a couple days ago i reset the e/l unit...the lights started to flicker...huh ...now i am confused...e/l unit stayed up...went out to the workshop checked the e/l unit ...it hadnt tripped.

    switch everything off and reset...got the multi meter out and checked the voltage...230 volts L-N and L-E ...no problem...yet all the lights i switched on in the house were flickering...a couple minutes later it stopped...i always tell my customers...if they notice the lights flickering...call the electricity department and report a fault...there is a good chance the neutral has a bad connection and is about to break...so i decided to take a walk outside and check the pole connection...an easy problem to detect...the pole was on fire

    So we call the electricity department and report the pole on fire...i am told they will attend to it within 24 hours...the response i expected...and as we know from previous fires ...it doesnt help calling the Durban fire department because they dont have a direct link to the electricity department (of all the dumb things i have heard) where we had 3 fire engines with 10 firemen sitting waiting 3 hours waiting for someone to try get hold of the electricity department to get them to switch off the power so we could isolate the power to put out the fire.

    Eventually the fire burnt out and power was restored later that day.

    The good news...i havent had an e/l unit trip since...something to check the next time you have a random tripping e/l unit.
    Strange that a fault such as this should cause the earth leakage to trip as it is positioned before the earth leakage

    Sent from my SM-G570F using Tapatalk
    To make a mistake is human, to learn from that mistake is knowledge and knowledge is strength.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Leecatt View Post
    Strange that a fault such as this should cause the earth leakage to trip as it is positioned before the earth leakage

    Sent from my SM-G570F using Tapatalk
    The house nor workshop has tripped since this fault was repaired...the strange thing...it would trip at strange times like 2 am in the morning...i thought it might be the geyser...but since they repaired the cable outside...no tripping.

    What about this for strange...a while back i step into the shower and reach out to turn on the water...F^&* b%^& mother F^&*% i get electrocuted...lucky for me i was busy doing an upgrade to the shower ...so the handle wasnt screwed to the tap...as i grabbed the handle it got me...but the handle came off releasing me from the power...i had 230 volts on the copper pipes...ran some tests and traced the problem to a wire feeding the street light had burnt off... or another attempt to steal the cables again ...had dropped onto the light support arm putting 230 v on the earth...why it didnt blow everything...your guess is as good as mine..

    and the municipality assures me that all the earth wires being removed/stolen from the electrical system around Durban is not a concern.

    If you live in Durban look you will notice all the wires above the bare overhead lines and down the poles are being removed/stolen...i reported it because i found bare earth wires hanging between the live conductors on an overhead system...i was told they dont need the earth wire...eeeeesih...now i know why people dont bother to earth plugs fitted to plastic extension boxes

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    We have often experienced nuisance ELU tripping with loose neutral connections before the ELU. Tighten the connection and

    Times like that when it's handy to have an infrared camera.

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    I have seen this more than once

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    Hi

    We have had the same problem with loose neutrals on the incoming mains causing intermittent ELU tripping .

    Also find when the wind blows , which in this part of the world is often, the overhead lines touching cause intermittent ELU trips - We get Municipality to cable tie some conduits across the lines to keep them apart and it generally solves the problem.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GCE View Post
    Hi

    We have had the same problem with loose neutrals on the incoming mains causing intermittent ELU tripping .

    Also find when the wind blows , which in this part of the world is often, the overhead lines touching cause intermittent ELU trips - We get Municipality to cable tie some conduits across the lines to keep them apart and it generally solves the problem.
    we dont have that problem anymore...they have stolen all the bare copper overhead lines in our area...now we have bundles ally conductors

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    I was in the UK recently. Trying to explain to the UK electricians the things we have to deal with this side. I mean there if a rubber grommet is missing off a back box or if you use self tappers to fix a socket back its a big thing there. Here you have pole on fire and its a 24 hour wait.

    Someone accidentally sets of a fire alarm with their Vape and they will evacuate a whole office block.

    Hope you don't mind but I shared this on the UK electrician forum. They think I'm exaggerating when I tell them I have been waiting since June to get an earth reinstated on a property I'm trying to buy.

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    Quote Originally Posted by skatingsparks View Post
    I was in the UK recently. Trying to explain to the UK electricians the things we have to deal with this side. I mean there if a rubber grommet is missing off a back box or if you use self tappers to fix a socket back its a big thing there. Here you have pole on fire and its a 24 hour wait.

    Someone accidentally sets of a fire alarm with their Vape and they will evacuate a whole office block.

    Hope you don't mind but I shared this on the UK electrician forum. They think I'm exaggerating when I tell them I have been waiting since June to get an earth reinstated on a property I'm trying to buy.
    it is actually a lot worse...like the crime in this country...we learn to live with it...just imagine if there was an average 56 people murdered and 110 rapes reported everyday in the UK...there would be a state of emergency declared and it would be all over world news.

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