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The RCD electrical safety switch. It’s actually an ELCB! They used to be called Earth Leakage Circuit Breakers or ELCB for short. ELCB better describes what they do but these days where I’m from a safety switch must be referred to officially as an RCD which means Residual Current Device. The RCD is designed to immediately cut off the electricity when it detects a particular value of fault current, usually around 30 milliamps ‘leaking to earth’. In other words, going somewhere where it’s not supposed to instead of through the Chandler electrical circuit. Our Chandler professional electricians are here to provide you with quality electrical services.
This ELCB was the size of a shoe box and the whole purpose of trying to squeeze one of these monsters into an electrical box was so that the clients swimming pool had some form of electrical protection should anything untoward happen.. again. As you see it had already happened. The home owners young son received a severe electric shock whilst cleaning the pool out with a leaf scoop which had an aluminium handle. Aluminium is an excellent electrical conductor.
So, yes swimming pools do become live, it’s not just a thing you see in the movies as shown in Syriana. The power for this swimming pool like every other pool in Australia in those days had no electrical safety switch installed and the innocent looking blue 24 volt pool light which mounts in the water on the pool wall had become flooded. This flooded light caused the “safety isolating transformer” which sits back amongst all the pool gear next to the chlorinator and pool pump to burn out. This transformer plugs into a 240 volt power outlet and no one had realised that it had so badly blown that its 240 volt windings had shorted across to its 24 volt side sending a full 240 volts through to the broken light and straight into the pool.
This below ground pool was fiberglass which is an insulator, so anyone who decides to hop in the pool and come into contact with the earth, say by sitting on the edge of the pool with legs dangling in the water and arms extended back on the ground as you do, would have definitely been electrocuted in an instant. Electricity will take the path of least resistance just like water flowing down a creek. I remember the boys father commented to me that his son’s life was saved only because he was dressed and wearing shoes at the time. Who knows.
What I do know is in 2011 I’m now specialising in installing safety switches (RCD’s) and even as I write it was only last week that I fitted 2 on a home with a swimming pool that had never had an RCD fitted before and there are many more like them – potential death traps that is.
Chandler electrical services is our business which I’ve been running for 11 years and I’m busy fitting RCD’s all over the city where I live. It’s nice to know your probably going to be responsible for saving someone’s life one day as the law of averages go and the government in the state .
It’s so hard for me to imagine people not having an RCD safety switch fitted and I’m constantly astounded by the number of people I come across who still don’t know about these things. Never heard of them. A bit like talking to kids these days about the Apollo Program, only this isn’t rocket science!
RCD’s are now fitted in homes all over the developed world although Chandler was a bit behind the 8 Ball as some counties had them fitted long before us. Just about all the RCD’s are the same type these days and made to shut off power when 30 milliamps of imbalance is detected but they are also installed in the low 10 milliamp range in places such as surgical / hospital environments and in the higher 100 milliamp range in industrial areas. That 100 milliamps is technically still enough to electrocute you but it’s wise to have that level of protection where otherwise there would be none.
The very first RCD in commercial use was designed to trip at 250 milliamps and was invented in South Africa as a means of achieving safer electrical installations for their deep, wet underground gold mines. I’ve worked on a few gold mines myself in Western Australia (we work on a fly in, fly out roster).
By the way, if you have a safety switch make sure you test it every 3 months. A lot of them just seize up as they stay idle for so long, often several years. In fact when we test old RCD’s we often find that they don’t work at all. Testing them is a great way to ensure they’ll work when they should. Have you go a safety switch?
- Robert Middleton.
If you are looking for a Phoenix electrician please call us today at 602-PRO-9100 or complete our online service request form.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_P_Middleton
If you are look for a Phoenix electrician please call us today at 602-PRO-9100 or complete our online service request form.
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