Hi guys, just curious. I have a plastic electric kettle that has an earth lead in the flex. I can't see much point in it. It will trip the RCD in the event of an element insulation breakdown so there's some use there. Any thoughts?
Well, an appliance with an earth terminal should be firstly inspected and tested as a class I appliance as at least some metalic part is likely to be accessible to human touch.
Yes, for appliances with heating elements and / or higher current components, this is often (although not always necessarily) the case.
For appliances containing electronics, we need to be very careful about the liberal application of "Class I Earth Test" at a few A up to say 25 A (depending on the test kit), as not all PCBs have to be rated to take the whole appliance fault current.
In addition, some devices have an earth conductor included for funcitonal purposes for either suppressors etc for EMC purposes, or for earthing the otherwise isolated d.c. (PELV) - laptop power supplies are a prime example of this.
Well, an appliance with an earth terminal should be firstly inspected and tested as a class I appliance as at least some metalic part is likely to be accessible to human touch.
Yes, for appliances with heating elements and / or higher current components, this is often (although not always necessarily) the case.
For appliances containing electronics, we need to be very careful about the liberal application of "Class I Earth Test" at a few A up to say 25 A (depending on the test kit), as not all PCBs have to be rated to take the whole appliance fault current.
In addition, some devices have an earth conductor included for funcitonal purposes for either suppressors etc for EMC purposes, or for earthing the otherwise isolated d.c. (PELV) - laptop power supplies are a prime example of this.
