Talk:Earth leakage circuit breaker
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This section is really too simplistic, actually to the point of being incorrect. There are two types of ELCB, which in UK terminology are Voltage Operated ELCBs (which is what this article is describing), and Current Operated ELCBs, which are now more commonly called RCDs, so an RCD is a type of ELCB. Secondly, the Voltage Operated ELCB is more correctly described as monitoring the voltage between its two earth terminals, not the current. Thirdly, the purpose of a Voltage Operated ELCB is really to check for excessive Earth Resistance during earth leakage, and not the earth leakage itself.--81.187.162.107 22:44, 2 August 2005 (UTC) (Andrew Gabriel)
How they really work & their advantages
First they dont introduce any additional resistance into the earthing system, nor do they introduce any additional point of failure into the earthing system.
v-ELCBs monitor the voltage between house's earth circuit and a separate secondary earth electrode, there is no introduction of resistance into the earth circuit. They trip when this voltage rises, and in UK are required to have tripped before it gets to 50v.
The author also missed a significant point about ELCBs: they are dramatically less prone to false trips compared to RCDs. And btw they are in widespread use here in Britain, not just on very old installs.
Althouth RCDs do have their advantages, in some cases an ELCB is a more suitable device. One example would be in feeds shared between flats, where a (common) current imbalance in one flat's load could cause no end of problems to another flat, including nuisance, loss and damage, and possibly even neighbour relations truoble. Another example would be supplies to electrode heaters, where RCDs are unsuitable and ELCBs well suited. Another is supply to devices where nuisance trips are a real problem, such as emergency lighting, freezers, and so on. Finally an ELCB and a split CU with one side RCDed is an option for TT systems, causing less nuisance trips than single RCD systems, and providing more safety than a TT system without a whole house RCD.
The article is a fair start, but does need work.
Tabby 213.107.232.16 22:13, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
This article hardly highlights the benefits of ELCB's. It makes a critical assumption that "Nowadays, they have been almost totally replaced by Residual-current device (RCD) ...". That may be true with reference to the country in which the author resides, but certainly not on an international scale. For instance ELCB installations have been used in South Africa since the late 1950's and are still being used successfully at time of writing.
See www.cbibreakers.com/papers/27/CBI2.pdf
In South Africa ELCB's installed in the home (domestic) are commonly known as an "Earth Leakage protection" to the home owner. New installations and resale of an existing home have a legal requirement for an electrical wireman’s certificate of compliance. One of the items (amongst others) that is checked during the inspection is for the presence and safe operation of an ELCB. It is the responsisbility of the seller (vendor) to pay for the inspection prior to or during conveyancing of the sale.
--203.184.8.91 10:42, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Experts, please edit this article
I am just a home user trying to understand what my electrician is trying to do. Considering the above three comments, I decided to put the misleading and expert subject templates in here... If anyone who knows better comes across this article, please correct it.
[edit] Diagram
Before discussing the details, a diagram needs to be there showing how the ELCB is connected.
An ELCB is in fact a latching relay. Explaining this would make it much easier for inexperienced readers imho. Tabby (talk) 14:26, 2 February 2008 (UTC)
