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Thread: Earth leakage as main breaker as well?

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    Earth leakage as main breaker as well?

    Hello all,

    I need to have my house DB seen to as the previous owner made a right mess of it - not sure how the Coc was ever issued.
    In any case, the main breaker is an old Fuchs single pole 60A unit, which feeds into a new CBi QA17A earth leakage - which I had fitted after the old (some other brand) kept tripping.
    Since the CBi QA17A is also a circuit breaker, is it OK (legal) to remove the old Fuchs SP breaker? My DB is a bit cramped, so this extra space will help.

    Many thanks,
    Shaun.

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    Quote Originally Posted by desertburner View Post
    Hello all,

    I need to have my house DB seen to as the previous owner made a right mess of it - not sure how the Coc was ever issued.
    In any case, the main breaker is an old Fuchs single pole 60A unit, which feeds into a new CBi QA17A earth leakage - which I had fitted after the old (some other brand) kept tripping.
    Since the CBi QA17A is also a circuit breaker, is it OK (legal) to remove the old Fuchs SP breaker? My DB is a bit cramped, so this extra space will help.

    Many thanks,
    Shaun.
    If you had your earth leakage replaced then your electrical compliance certificate should have been updated to indicate the new 30 mA Earth Leakage in place of the old 20 mA unit.
    If you decide to remove the Fuchs circuit breaker then the electrical compliance certificate needs to be updated again.
    Your electrician will have to have a look at the layout in your distribution board to ascertain whether it is feasible or not to remove the Fuchs circuit breaker.
    However, provided that the existing wiring allows for it then it should be possible to remove it.

    Sent from my SM-A705FN using Tapatalk
    To make a mistake is human, to learn from that mistake is knowledge and knowledge is strength.

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    Seeing that the CBi QA17A has overload protection build in there is no need for additional overload protection.

    I also agree in regards to above post.

    Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk

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    Thanks for the update, much appreciated. I'll communicate the feedback to the local electrician.

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    The earth leakage can be used as a main switch however remember that then everything in the installation will be on earth leakage including anything that may cause problems in the future without any way of removing it off earth leakage.

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