Earth Leakage Relay

With the installation disconnected from the unit:

• Mk.1 eyeball over the downstream installation, looking for obvious faults.
• Multimeter on ohms between earth and neutral downstream.
• Proprietary insulation tester between earth and neutral downstream, ideally with something switched on so as to pick up the live-to-earth as well.
• A full suite of installation testing and appraisal in accordance with British Standard 7671.
• Any combination of the above.
• If the unit trips when power is applied with the installation disconnected, having carried out all of the above in vain, then the unit itself requires replacement as it is faulty.

Is your tripping problem related to High-Voltage or Low-Voltage?

Anyway, the frequent tripping in earth leakage relays (or GFCIs) may happen due to two reasons:

*) Your relay itself is defective... or if not, **) then the accessories connected to it such as wires and other load equipments , have some insulation problems !!!

In terms of the methods suggested, you can have a look at here.

I hope this helps!!

Monitor the earth/ground circuit conductor with a current recorder to identify the magnitude of leakage that is occurring during the trip fault.

If the identified value is less than the earth/ground current detector setting parameter, replace the relay.

If the identified value is higher than the setting, use a Volt-Ohm-Meter, Meggar, or Hypot to test for and isolate any/all grounded circuits.

Caution!! Be sure to find out and fully comply with all OEM earth leakage/ground fault relay testing procedures.

A common cause for this is to have two or more devices ( ELR's ) on the same circuit.

I have had safety experts DEMAND i plug a portable ELR into a circuit that is already protected. This often results in 'nuisance' tripping known as a false positive, but what is less well known is that a false negative can also occur. This can result in death without the device tripping and then investigators just shrug their shoulders.

There are different types of devices and the statements i have made i know to be true for only one type and so you need to determine exactly what sort of device you have to investigate further.

Jim

Is this an occasional thing, or does it happen permanently?

Are there several circuits, fed from fuses or CBs on this ELCB?

If yes, switch off all CBs/remove all fuses.

Test ELCB with the special (often yellow I believe) test button, this uses an inbuilt test value of fault current and the breaker should trip immediately.

Gradually add a CB/Fuse, one at a time.....to try and isolate the circuit that is causing the problem.

Do remember that (sadly) it may be a combination of more than one circuit. Usually its never more than two, but theoretically, it could be more...

I have found that boilers and kettles can be particularly irritating in this manner.....leaky elements....almost anything that uses water can be a problem, washing machines and the like.....but it is not confined to them. Even outside lighting can be a problem source for example, simply suspect everything!!

Using a Megger (borrow or rent one maybe!) on all suspect units.

It can also be used CAREFULLY, on suspect circuits with the CB/Fuse removed. If you are finding any insulation at less than 1 Meg Ohm (or code for your area), that will usually point a finger.......

Go at it slowly and logically......

But if you are not electrically savvy, I do not recommend you trying to do this yourself.....its easy to cause a problem....

Best of luck....

PS. There was also a recent blog here on this, maybe more than one. Do a search on CR4.

Are you asking about an RCD circuit breaker or similar?

I have found that a tester that does a ramp or trip-current test is particularly useful.

In essence, you are faced with the situation where the device is tripping and you must find out where the main cause of the trip is coming from, yes?

If you can lay your hands on a tester that does the ramp test, then here is how to proceed :

1) with the whole installation in place, test with the ramp tester and note what leakage current the tester measures at trip.

2) Disconnect all downstream devices and circuits and test the protection device alone. This should give a higher level of trip current.

3) Progressively reconnect the various downstream conductors and devices and re-test. Generally, the item that is causing the grief will fairly rapidly reveal itself in short order.