RCD socket outlet.

We made that transition from EEBADS- Earthed Equipotential Bonding and Automatic Disconnection of Supply to ADS- Automatic Disconnection of Supply.


The house that Dave is asking about was presumably installed as EEBADS without any RCD protection in the consumer unit or fuse board at all, indeed it is still possible to install some circuits in homes without RCD protection, though not lighting circuits anymore as they require RCD protection as of this year.


So it is more than feasible that you could be called to a house where people are getting electric shocks off the kitchen tap, because someone messed up replacing a light fitting on a  non-RCD protected light circuit and the requirements for EEBADS was not fulfilled or has been compromised.At the very least an electrician can be expected to do an earth fault loop test when replacing a light fitting and anyone else should confirm earth continuity in some other very basic way. It could happen the other way around, someone could replace a light fitting then get shocks off it due to an existing fault elsewhere.


So replacing a light fitting or anything similar still requires some basic inspection and testing; and yes the closer the a RCD that may be installed is to the electric suppliers intake, and the more circuits it protects, the safer the installation will be and putting the RCD at the end of the circuit is the least favorable choice.


I have walked away from jobs like the one Dave asked about after the customer declined to have main protective bonding conductors installed along with a new consumer unit, at one house the customer said I don't want those I will just have the extra socket. Someone else wanted some new sockets installed in a TT installation protected by an ELCB that had had its earth rod removed, when i mentioned having to have a new consumer unit and earthing installed she got all uppity with me and said she had just had her kitchen rewired by the kitchen fitters and they had not said there was anything wrong with it and she wasn't going to pay for anything other than the new sockets she wanted in the bedrooms for her lodgers to use. Installing SRCDs in either of those homes would not have resolved the fundamental problems.


You have to know when it's time to walk away, if an installation was not safe thirty years ago just bunging in random RCDs is not going to make it safe now.


There is a time and a place for installing SRCDs and FCRCDs subject to other criteria being met, but those who wrote the British Standard for them don't appear to identified when and where that is.


Andy Betteridge.

We made that transition from EEBADS- Earthed Equipotential Bonding and Automatic Disconnection of Supply to ADS- Automatic Disconnection of Supply.


The house that Dave is asking about was presumably installed as EEBADS without any RCD protection in the consumer unit or fuse board at all, indeed it is still possible to install some circuits in homes without RCD protection, though not lighting circuits anymore as they require RCD protection as of this year.


So it is more than feasible that you could be called to a house where people are getting electric shocks off the kitchen tap, because someone messed up replacing a light fitting on a  non-RCD protected light circuit and the requirements for EEBADS was not fulfilled or has been compromised.At the very least an electrician can be expected to do an earth fault loop test when replacing a light fitting and anyone else should confirm earth continuity in some other very basic way. It could happen the other way around, someone could replace a light fitting then get shocks off it due to an existing fault elsewhere.


So replacing a light fitting or anything similar still requires some basic inspection and testing; and yes the closer the a RCD that may be installed is to the electric suppliers intake, and the more circuits it protects, the safer the installation will be and putting the RCD at the end of the circuit is the least favorable choice.


I have walked away from jobs like the one Dave asked about after the customer declined to have main protective bonding conductors installed along with a new consumer unit, at one house the customer said I don't want those I will just have the extra socket. Someone else wanted some new sockets installed in a TT installation protected by an ELCB that had had its earth rod removed, when i mentioned having to have a new consumer unit and earthing installed she got all uppity with me and said she had just had her kitchen rewired by the kitchen fitters and they had not said there was anything wrong with it and she wasn't going to pay for anything other than the new sockets she wanted in the bedrooms for her lodgers to use. Installing SRCDs in either of those homes would not have resolved the fundamental problems.


You have to know when it's time to walk away, if an installation was not safe thirty years ago just bunging in random RCDs is not going to make it safe now.


There is a time and a place for installing SRCDs and FCRCDs subject to other criteria being met, but those who wrote the British Standard for them don't appear to identified when and where that is.


Andy Betteridge.