I've got a bit of a query and wondered if you could help please. I've got 6 caravan hookups, all wired into the same circuit. They each have a 16amp trip, and a shared RCD (per pair). Furthermore, there's a 40amp trip covering all of them further up the wire, and this is fed from a 60amp trip which also feeds another building (20amp trip). Anyhow! Yesterday one of the four people using it reported they had no power. I checked the trips and all the 16amp trips were ok, but the 40amp and 60amp trips had both tripped. I reset them and all was fine. Today I had another person say they had no electric, went and looked again and the 60amp trip had gone. Before I call an electrician out, can anybody tell me why the big trip would go and not the small individual trips, or the 40amp?
Too many people using too much kit. Camping now involves so much lecky kit! People prefer lecky hot plates to gas burners, love halogen heaters and and fan blowers etc. We are seeing this across sites recently.
but why did the 40amp trip not go first then? i thought about getting an electrician out to check the cable and see if the trip could be upgraded but if it's blowing the 60amp before the 40amp then surely upgrading the 40 to a 60, and then the 60 to an 80 (even if the cable could support it) would mean that the new 60 (current 40) would just blow instead?
Could you educate me as to what the difference is please? Not being an electrician it means almost nothing to me. What needs doing to rectify the issue?
A larger supply You need to get an electrician to check it's not a fault causing the operation. We have an energy logger that would show the maximum demand. It would be left in place for a week or so. Not many electricians have these, but they can be hired.
So what is different about the type c and type b? The trouble with logging the energy would be that the site is constantly changing, and it's difficult to predict which week maximum load will occur. Before yesterday, neither of these trips had gone for over a year, and the 60amp i can almost never remember going.
The sites load changing IS EXACTLY why you would use a logger and leave it in place for a bit. A type B is your typical breaker, a type C is designed for loads which have switch on surges. A type C *may* not trip so readily, but should still trip before a B63 on overload. Perhaps the B63 has tripped a few times and become weaker. Your breakers are also TP - It could be just one phase that is overloading. It may be possible to move some load around to other phases. Wider shot of this board?
Thanks for your explanation. Perhaps I'd need to keep a logger in place for several weeks. It's also strange it happens in the summer as I'd expect peak load in the winter with heaters, cookers etc. I'm not sure why the trip would be designed for "switch on surges" - I assume this meaning high start up loads? Prior to the caravan installation it served lights in one building (20amp trip) and a poultry house which could explain. The cable to the poultry house was upgraded to a larger size to accomodate the caravans and was designed to have additional capacity also. The one trip being weaker might well be the case. It's certainly quite old! As you say it could well be overload on one phase. I would assume all hookups to be running off one phase so perhaps it could be spread. Looks like I need to speak to an electrician and get their opinion.
Oh, I'll also add another photo of the board (60amp?) too. I assume you mean the outside...or did you mean inside?
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