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Wylex combined AFDD/RCBO

I was in the wholesalers today when the Wylex rep turned up.

He had a combined RCBO/AFDD that he was showing off. The same size as a circuit breaker, much like their current range of RCBO's, albeit these have a neutral fly lead.

If you believed him, we will all be fitting these in a years time. He equated it to people fitting a new boiler, they do that at 10-15 year intervals for £1500, we'll be doing the same with consumer units at a similar cost!

There was a lot of salesman talk about 15000 house fires a year caused by electrical faults, and this unit will stop that. I'm not sure he has assessed the figures correctly, all of these fires cannot have been caused by arcing.

Anyway, he says they are very high tech, and internally test their AFDD capability every 15 hours (how, without cutting the power?).

Lifespan? He says a long time. We laughed. If the AFDD side fails, it needs a new complete unit.

And the current cost - £110 each.

Until they are below £35, I just cannot see many of these being sold.

0 Chris Pearson over 5 years ago

alanblaby:

He equated it to people fitting a new boiler, they do that at 10-15 year intervals for £1500, we'll be doing the same with consumer units at a similar cost!

If that is the case, both my boiler and consumer units are a couple of decades past their sell-by dates.
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0 Former Community Member over 5 years ago

I get people grumble at £600 for a fully loaded Rcbo board upgrade

no chance of getting them to part with 3 times that for a arc fault board

and certainly not every 10 years or so
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0 whjohnson over 5 years ago

Is it possible to sell the impossible? The Wylex rep appears to think so!

The things are of dubious value in any case, although I notice that a few of the former public sceptics has now come round to thinking that afdds may be a good idea after all.

I wonder if the manufacturers have given them a stern talking to? Cease and Desist letters?

After all, the things are hard enough to sell when they only ever recognise the 'right arc signature'. No good for any of the others which may or may not cause harm!
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0 mapj1 over 5 years ago

If that is the case, both my boiler and consumer units are a couple of decades past their sell-by dates.

You are not alone. More like inspected and serviced every ten years, certainly not changed. Perhaps he is thinking of his cars.

I am not convinced of the need for AFDDs. Wago style terminals or other designs with some spring are a better solution to the loose contact problem for fixed wiring, and the problems of overloaded plug in adaptors and extension leads snagged in doors are really solved by letting folk fit enough sockets that the things are not needed.

Oh, and discouraging those silly plastic 'child plugs' that make the socket terminals loose.
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0 MHRestorations over 5 years ago

If I see those socket 'destroyer' things in a public environment I point out that they're not approved to be used with a BS socket... and therefore will likely have insurance ramifications. It's surprising how fast they disappear.

I'm actually surprised they're still allowed to be sold
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0 lyledunn over 5 years ago

I wonder if the insurance industry has assessed the value of these devices for this is where the imperative and incentive for their deployment will be derived. If premium adjustments were attractive then there may be merit.

At the moment, failure to use them in the locations identified in 421.1.7 might come back to haunt designers should a fire incident be traced back to an arc fault.
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0 Former Community Member over 5 years ago

Posted by MHRestorations on Jan 30, 2020 12:29 am

"If I see those socket 'destroyer' things in a public environment I point out that they're not approved to be used with a BS socket... and therefore will likely have insurance ramifications. It's surprising how fast they disappear."

I'd be really interested if you have any further details on lack of approval for use with BS sockets....
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0 AJJewsbury over 5 years ago

I'd be really interested if you have any further details on lack of approval for use with BS sockets....

Try: http://www.fatallyflawed.org.uk/ (don't be put off by the "unpolished" appearance of the web site - the information within is pretty well founded)

- Andy.
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0 mapj1 over 5 years ago
Let us turn that around, the BS1363 specification is what specifies the only things you are expected to plug in if you wish to operate in a BS approved manner.

Part 1: Rewirable and non-rewirable 13 A fused plugs

Part 2: 13 A Switched and unswitched socket-outlets

Part 3: Adaptors

Part 4: 13 A fused connection units: switched and unswitched

Part 5: 13 A fused conversion plugs

There is no (well, when I last looked, anyway)

Part 6: A piece of unfused low grade plastic tat intended to defeat the safety mechanism of sockets manufactured to Part 2.

And until there is, such things have no BS approval, whatever letters and numbers the makers may stamp on them, and if you are using them, you are legally in the same position as opening the shutters with the lid to your biro and poking your meter probes in (i.e. you are on your own).

While we have all done that, some even with our kids, and we know it is fairly safe, that is only true if and only if you know what you are doing. The sort of person buying the 'socket safe' child protector or whatever would probably never dream of letting their kids do so and should treat the plastic things the same,
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Wylex combined AFDD/RCBO

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