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Are RCD's Required?

Hi, looking to understand if an RCD would be a required regulation (and/or just highly recommended) in the following situation.  The additional cost of installing four or five 3-Phase RCDs is quite substantial and I would prefer to avoid it if still deemed as safe and not legally required.  Earthing system is TN-C-S.


For connecting up 4x Immersion Elements (9kW, 9kW, 6kW, 3kW) in Brewery Tanks I am looking at either:


A.  SWA Cable clipped direct to basket from the Control Panel to IP rated Plugs/Sockets mounted on the wall.  Then floating SY Cable (recommended by electrician) from the wall to the Tanks, which is about a 2m run.  Thinking Plugs/Sockets just to make life easy if I ever want to move things around and also for easier access for cleaning.


B.  Same as above but swapping the Plugs/Sockets for Isolators.


Look forward to your feedback and opinions.  Cheers.
Parents
  • I thought that we had reached the conclusion that we just need an RCBO in the DB if at all.

    I wasn't sure what was intended - both approaches had been suggested at various times (and on various threads). We've got I think a total of 27kW - so at least 40A/phase - as I've not seen any 3-phase RCBOs rated that high yet (usually 32A max) I suspected that an upstream RCBO might not have been intended.

     
    However, I interpreted your message as being cautious about the type of RCBO. i.e type AC might not be compatible with the PID, but type A might. AFAIK, TPN RCBOs are type A.

    That's another issue - it depends on the details - hopefully at worst it's the equivalent of SCRs/Triacs controlling what are in effect three separate single phase loads per channel (hence an A type should suffice as you say) rather than anything that looks like the second half of Fig A53.1 of BS 7671 (which might have implied the need for a B-type).


       - Andy.
Reply
  • I thought that we had reached the conclusion that we just need an RCBO in the DB if at all.

    I wasn't sure what was intended - both approaches had been suggested at various times (and on various threads). We've got I think a total of 27kW - so at least 40A/phase - as I've not seen any 3-phase RCBOs rated that high yet (usually 32A max) I suspected that an upstream RCBO might not have been intended.

     
    However, I interpreted your message as being cautious about the type of RCBO. i.e type AC might not be compatible with the PID, but type A might. AFAIK, TPN RCBOs are type A.

    That's another issue - it depends on the details - hopefully at worst it's the equivalent of SCRs/Triacs controlling what are in effect three separate single phase loads per channel (hence an A type should suffice as you say) rather than anything that looks like the second half of Fig A53.1 of BS 7671 (which might have implied the need for a B-type).


       - Andy.
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