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Supply failure warning device

Grumpy

Hi All,

The RCBO that supplies the compressor in my treatment plant tripped randomly the other day. As I have been doing some maintenance on it and subsequently monitoring it I noticed quite quickly. This was the first time it had tripped since installation 20 months ago and hasn't tripped again.

The RCBO is in a CU in the detached garage which itself is supplied via sub main direct off the incoming supply to the house.

So I thought some sort of monitoring device might be prudent. Originally I thought I could utilise a non maintained emergency light that I have kicking about but realised it wouldn't have enough life if the supply failed at night. I go into the garage daily but not necessarily first thing. Has anyone any (low cost) suggestions?

I'm thinking maybe batten lampholder, red lamp, supply from garage lighting circuit and, what, an NC relay with a supply from the outgoing terminals of the plant's RCBO?

We're not talking life critical, hospital standard here, but if the supply's off too long my poor little microbes suffer!

Thanks for any suggestions!

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  • 0
    Grumpy said:
    I'm thinking maybe batten lampholder, red lamp, supply from garage lighting circuit and, what, an NC relay with a supply from the outgoing terminals of the plant's RCBO?

    Hm, whatever would the neighbours think of a red lamp in the garage? ;-)

    The simplest way would be to have a little green light connected to the circuit: when it is on, all is good.

    An alternative would be to mount a small contactor/relay in a suitable box so that if the power goes off, a lamp (or siren, etc.) comes on. It does not have to be in the CU, but if there is space in there, one mounted on a bit of DIN rail would be acceptable.

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  • 0
    Grumpy said:
    I'm thinking maybe batten lampholder, red lamp, supply from garage lighting circuit and, what, an NC relay with a supply from the outgoing terminals of the plant's RCBO?

    Hm, whatever would the neighbours think of a red lamp in the garage? ;-)

    The simplest way would be to have a little green light connected to the circuit: when it is on, all is good.

    An alternative would be to mount a small contactor/relay in a suitable box so that if the power goes off, a lamp (or siren, etc.) comes on. It does not have to be in the CU, but if there is space in there, one mounted on a bit of DIN rail would be acceptable.

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  • 0 in reply to Chris Pearson

    Good point Chris, the little green lamp is even simpler. Trouble is it's easier to miss when something that's always on goes off than something that's not on lights up!

    Neighbours? What are they?

  • 0 in reply to Grumpy

    I agree. My new SPD has a switch which can be used NO or NC and so I had to decide whether to have green for good or red for bad (or not bother at all). I decided to go for red for bad on the basis that if the device has tripped so that it is no longer doing its job, I would be more likely to notice it. The only problem was getting the LED for the enclosure. Unlike Mike's tackle, mine is made by the same manufacturer, but it does not appear in their UK catalogue, just the European one.

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