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RCD Protection at Data Cabinets

Bob Cowie
I have a Client that will not provide a Risk Assessment to omit an RCD Commando Socket for a Data Cabinet. He wishes to employ a local isolator for the Cabinet, however he is concerned that the PDU Strip that arrived on site from the factory and pre-fitted within the data cabinet would still need an RCD. It is my opinion that the Factory built Data Rack is classed as a piece of equipment and as such does not form part of the Contractor's installation. If the Rack had arrived on site without the PDU strip fitted and it was installed by the Contractor then this would form part of the installation and therefore would require an RCD. Any advice/assistance would be appreciated.
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    Well,  except for the potentially significant convenience of not having to turn the power off and verify exposed terminals are dead before unbolting things - as with signal cables, bonding can be removed and re-fitted, as soon as the jumbo mains plug is removed from the supply






    As long as you're not importing protective conductor currents from elsewhere.




    Yes you can have local isolation switches one per rack, but these in the heat of battle such things can be another source of accidentally switching off the wrong thing.






    Same with plug and socket-outlet. They're all just isolators. And many racks will have two feeds (or more) - multiple points of isolation. In terms of accidentally switching off the wrong thing in the heat of the moment, let's also consider Regulation 12 of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 which definitely requires "... where appropriate, methods of identifying circuits ...": if it's operationally so important not to "flip the wrong switches", make sure they are properly identified, because this is required for safety in any case.


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    Well,  except for the potentially significant convenience of not having to turn the power off and verify exposed terminals are dead before unbolting things - as with signal cables, bonding can be removed and re-fitted, as soon as the jumbo mains plug is removed from the supply






    As long as you're not importing protective conductor currents from elsewhere.




    Yes you can have local isolation switches one per rack, but these in the heat of battle such things can be another source of accidentally switching off the wrong thing.






    Same with plug and socket-outlet. They're all just isolators. And many racks will have two feeds (or more) - multiple points of isolation. In terms of accidentally switching off the wrong thing in the heat of the moment, let's also consider Regulation 12 of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 which definitely requires "... where appropriate, methods of identifying circuits ...": if it's operationally so important not to "flip the wrong switches", make sure they are properly identified, because this is required for safety in any case.


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