Earth leakage switch tripping when loadshedding starts

Inverters
6

So in summary, from cheapest to most expensive:

  1. Test the earth leakage, with something like this.
  2. Test the earth continuity, sparky will have a tool for that
  3. Test the insulation of every circuit, live and neutral to earth, sparky has the tool for that.
  4. Check the standing leakage (there is a trick for that that avoids expensive tooling), and if necessary split your circuits into two blocks, if it is over 10mA.
  5. Install an impact-resistant RCD.

The trick for testing standing leakage without the expensive clamp meter: Use the testing tool I linked in 1. Those have an adjustable test current, going down to 10mA. By first testing the RCD on its own (to determine where it trips), and then using this tool to preload the RCD with 10mA, and then by turning on individual circuits until it trips, you can employ a proverbial “difference method” to detect if you have more than 5mA leakage on a circuit.

I mention this, as many sparkies won’t be running around with an earth leakage clamp meter all over the place… :slight_smile:

Edit: I notice now the RCD tester I linked as example is rather on the expensive side. There are cheaper ones that are non-digital. That’s what I had in mind. It is also more likely that the sparky has a RCD tester in his bag than having a fancy earth leakage clamp tester.

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