On 10/05/2011 07:21 AM, andy pugh wrote: > On 5 October 2011 11:47, Erik Christiansen<dva...@internode.on.net> wrote: > >> Peter, when specifying house wiring to my electriciain, I ensured that >> in the kitchen, only the the counter-top outlets were in the ELCB > No choice in the UK. > > It used to be that you had to have the sockets on an RCD and the > lights not on an RCD (it being assumed that almost nobody is > electrocuted by a light fitting, but falling down the stairs in the > dark when the washing machine needs new brushes is a problem) > > Now the regs say that there should be two RCDs with the lights and > sockets split between them. > > This article here has an interesting review of the situation with > commercial premises, which I think could reasonably be extended to > machine tools which don't play well with earth leakage detection. > http://www.electricalreview.co.uk/features/117892/17th_Edition_-_To_RCD_or_not_RCD%3F.html I think that this part should solve some problems in an industrial setting:
Exceptions are permitted where: the use of socket outlets is under the supervision of someone "skilled" or "instructed" or if they are specifically labelled or identified for a particular item of equipment. In my little shop here at home, I have a 200 amp 40 breaker panel, and I feed each piece of equipment with it's own dedicated circuit. I have this nice little label maker that prints out little white labels, and I stick them on each outlet, identifying what breaker controls it. Writing a tag, specifying how the outlet is connected, shouldn't be any different. And, having everyone in your shop sign a piece of paper that is "INSTRUCTING" them that the outlet shouldn't be used for anything other than it's intended purpose, should suffice. Here in the US, each city has it's own little quirks, and it's own "Modifications" to the NEC (National Electrical Code). In a house, in many jurisdictions, high current items like a refrigerator, or a washing machine are supposed to be on a dedicated circuit. For a washing machine, a ground fault plug is installed at that location, which keeps it separate from everything else. A refrigerator, generally doesn't get a GFCI, it supposed to get a single socket (round) outlet, to keep it from being used for anything else. It's far more hazardous to move a refrigerator out of it's hole (tipping hazard), to reset a GFCI, than the protection the GFCI is affording. I know that most houses, that weren't built in the last decade, are not wired up like this. I'm referring to what current codes require. I live out in the country, and in the state I live in, there are no specific codes that I have to follow. I'm not a licensed electrician, but I've been working with electricity for most of my life. I follow the NEC, and I have everything in my shop run in conduit. I use twist-lock plugs on all my machines, to keep anybody coming into my shop, from unplugging something (say, my air compressor which is 220v 15A) and plugging in a extension cord. My insurance company was quite impressed with my wiring, My agent said that he saw professionally installed wiring that wasn't anywhere near as good, and wished that all of his clients shops were wired like mine. PS. is is supposed to be spelled labelled in the UK? -- -Mark Ne M'oubliez ---Family Motto Hope for the best, plan for the worst ---Personal Motto ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All the data continuously generated in your IT infrastructure contains a definitive record of customers, application performance, security threats, fraudulent activity and more. Splunk takes this data and makes sense of it. Business sense. IT sense. Common sense. http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-d2dcopy1 _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
