Can anyone help me. I am not an Electrician so bare with me. I have recently moved to a Park Home site where each Park Home has a Circuit breaker installed before the wiring in the house. Before I moved I used an electronic variable speed wood turning lathe. I never had a problem with it but now when I turn the speed up it trips the circuit breaker outside. The circuit breaker in the consumer unit never trips when I do this. I have tried it in the cooker socket and it trips, I have tried in every socket in the house and it trips. I can use anything else such as circular saws, band saws, electric drills etc. but the only thing which trips the site owners circuit breaker is my lathe. To test the lathe I have taken it to three different houses off site and have no problems, its just here. Explained it to site owner but have been told it must be the lathe. the Lathe is Motor (carbon brush) 550w, 240v DC Has anyone got an explanation.
Circuit Breaker - exactly what type is it? Either get a picture of it and post it or copy the exact data printed on the front. And maybe a picture of your consumer unit too.
I have disconnected everything in the park home before using the lathe to ensure its nothing else. Not sure what negated means.
Hmmmm either the rcd is overly sensitive which I doubt, or your machine is dumping excessive mA down to earth Ezza - in other words it is highly likely that the machine is at fault. Is the motor full of damp sawdusty clag?
Of te two outside is it the left or right of your pair? The left is a RCCB - Residual Current Circuit Breaker which will trip on earth faults of over 100mA. The right hand one is a standard over current 40A breaker. My guess would be the left one. The indoor one is also an RCB - I think, can you get an in focus image, and is probably rated at 30mA. If my guess is right, I would suggest that the external RCCB is faulty. The variable speed motor on your lathe will have a leakage to earth and that is what is causing it. If it was >30mA then I would hope the internal would trip first and the 100mA would not.
So why is the indoor 30mA not tripping first? And why when tried on other supplies do none of those trip out on either RCD/RCCB?
The one that trips is the one with the 125 written on it (my house number). Heres my consumer unit again. Oh and the outside one is always the one to trip never my conssumer unit.
As I thought, it is a 100mA RCCB that is tripping and NOT the 30mA RCD - RCD & RCCB are two names for devices that perform the same function. As to why ... don't know but it does suggest a possible problem with one of the devices. You could well have a hard argument on your hands to get the outside one tested.
Now heres an interesting fact. I have just taken my lathe next door (126) and the same thing happened, the outside tripped and his consumer unit didn`t. Strange that if I take it off site to 3 houses and have no problems. here is his outside box. sorry for quality hard to get a good picture.
You have mentioned earth leakage. if i use a lathe without electronic variable speed do you think it would solve this. Oh and thanks for all the replies thus far, really appreciated.
Could also be a minor fault between the two RCDs, and the cumulative earth leakage is causing the 100mA RCD to operate. Sod changing the large, get them to fix the fault. Wondering whether the 100mA is an A type or B type?
It is an S type = time delay. If there is earth leakage then I would expect the RCD in the CU to trip first, as it is a 30mA non time dealt type. Needs an RCD tester andante IR tester for the lathe.
Ezza. the first thing you need to do is to get somebody with a portable appliance tester to check your lathe. They will be able to tell you what the leakage current is and if there is a problem with the lathe or its speed controller. If the motor is 240v dc (and according to the manufacturers datasheet it is) then it is possible that the speed controller is the issue. Kind regards
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