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elcb and borehole pump

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Hello

I have a problem with a newly installed domestic borehole pump. This is to replace the original pump which after 20 years has given up the ghost.

The pump appears to operate satisfactorily except that it trips the consumer unit elcb on starting and only on starting. Resetting the elcb allows the pump to run normally. The time taken to push the elcb switch back up is presumably sufficient for some transient effect to end.


The house wiring is exactly the same as for the original pump, which ran satisfactorily for 20 years.


The installer has carried out all the tests normally conducted on the pump and pump cable (continuity, insulation, running current, etc.) and claims that the pump is not faulty. Yet it trips the elcb on startup.


I will welcome any suggestions for a solution. The installer is a one man firm and is reluctant (to say the least) to change the pump.


Mike Lee
Parents
  • 0
    When you say the house wiring is exactly the same do you mean the controller was not replaced, just the pump?


    One of my customer has just had a new borehole sunk, last Saturday morning I went down and stood a couple of metres away from the borehole engineer as he temporarily wired the pump and lowered it into the borehole, whilst having a hour of general discussion about boreholes and pumps, including how I will wire it up permanently when a trench has been dug for the cable and water pipe.


    At the moment the pump controller is wired to the pump flex with a short lead and a 13-amp plug, the plug is connected to two extension 1.25 mm leads with a total length of fifty metres, so that’s two more 13-amp plugs, the one in the house is 30 mA PRCD which is plugged into a socket  in the house which is supplied from a circuit protected by a  B16 MCB and a 30 MA RCD in the house CU. The CU is supplied by a 100 metre distribution circuit with another MCB and a 100 mA S-Type RCD.


    So the 1.5 kW pump is protected by three 13 amp fuses, a B16 and a B40 MCB, two 30 mA RCDs and a 100 mA RCD, it has only been started three times, once by the borehole engineer and twice by me after I turned it off to do work elsewhere in the installation during the week. It starts and runs perfectly without any issues, even on this temporary setup.


    Andy Betteridge


Reply
  • 0
    When you say the house wiring is exactly the same do you mean the controller was not replaced, just the pump?


    One of my customer has just had a new borehole sunk, last Saturday morning I went down and stood a couple of metres away from the borehole engineer as he temporarily wired the pump and lowered it into the borehole, whilst having a hour of general discussion about boreholes and pumps, including how I will wire it up permanently when a trench has been dug for the cable and water pipe.


    At the moment the pump controller is wired to the pump flex with a short lead and a 13-amp plug, the plug is connected to two extension 1.25 mm leads with a total length of fifty metres, so that’s two more 13-amp plugs, the one in the house is 30 mA PRCD which is plugged into a socket  in the house which is supplied from a circuit protected by a  B16 MCB and a 30 MA RCD in the house CU. The CU is supplied by a 100 metre distribution circuit with another MCB and a 100 mA S-Type RCD.


    So the 1.5 kW pump is protected by three 13 amp fuses, a B16 and a B40 MCB, two 30 mA RCDs and a 100 mA RCD, it has only been started three times, once by the borehole engineer and twice by me after I turned it off to do work elsewhere in the installation during the week. It starts and runs perfectly without any issues, even on this temporary setup.


    Andy Betteridge


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