Flash and bang turning granny charger off
Discussion
agent006 said:
quinny100 said:
Pica-Pica said:
I would invest in a RCD adaptor for the charger as well.
Why would you do that?Are you a qualified electrician, care to explain the benefit of 2 RCDs?
Edited by James6112 on Thursday 2nd May 23:47
OutInTheShed said:
quinny100 said:
The OP said the circuit in question is RCD protected.
Adding a second RCD is pointless because you have no control of which of the two RCD's will trip. It's not a case of the RCD nearest the load will trip, it's whichever reacts fastest. It adds no additional protection.
In this case where a relatively high current device is being connected to a socket you want to minimise the number of connections in the circuit. Suggesting a plug in RCD is just adding two more connections, two more opportunities for a high resistance connection which will generate heat and melt something.
The safest way to use a granny charger is to plug it directly in to a decent quality socket. Stopping the charge on the car is a good idea as it will remove the load on the socket switch when you turn it off.
I don't disagree, but the flip side is, break the circuit with a £15 plug in RCD, worst case, you lose £15 instead of calling out a sparky to change your socket.Adding a second RCD is pointless because you have no control of which of the two RCD's will trip. It's not a case of the RCD nearest the load will trip, it's whichever reacts fastest. It adds no additional protection.
In this case where a relatively high current device is being connected to a socket you want to minimise the number of connections in the circuit. Suggesting a plug in RCD is just adding two more connections, two more opportunities for a high resistance connection which will generate heat and melt something.
The safest way to use a granny charger is to plug it directly in to a decent quality socket. Stopping the charge on the car is a good idea as it will remove the load on the socket switch when you turn it off.
This is a problem that should not happen, but I'm not knocked over by the surprise of it.
quinny100 said:
OutInTheShed said:
quinny100 said:
The OP said the circuit in question is RCD protected.
Adding a second RCD is pointless because you have no control of which of the two RCD's will trip. It's not a case of the RCD nearest the load will trip, it's whichever reacts fastest. It adds no additional protection.
In this case where a relatively high current device is being connected to a socket you want to minimise the number of connections in the circuit. Suggesting a plug in RCD is just adding two more connections, two more opportunities for a high resistance connection which will generate heat and melt something.
The safest way to use a granny charger is to plug it directly in to a decent quality socket. Stopping the charge on the car is a good idea as it will remove the load on the socket switch when you turn it off.
I don't disagree, but the flip side is, break the circuit with a £15 plug in RCD, worst case, you lose £15 instead of calling out a sparky to change your socket.Adding a second RCD is pointless because you have no control of which of the two RCD's will trip. It's not a case of the RCD nearest the load will trip, it's whichever reacts fastest. It adds no additional protection.
In this case where a relatively high current device is being connected to a socket you want to minimise the number of connections in the circuit. Suggesting a plug in RCD is just adding two more connections, two more opportunities for a high resistance connection which will generate heat and melt something.
The safest way to use a granny charger is to plug it directly in to a decent quality socket. Stopping the charge on the car is a good idea as it will remove the load on the socket switch when you turn it off.
This is a problem that should not happen, but I'm not knocked over by the surprise of it.
Multiple RCD's on a circuit is pointless and not recommended.
To prevent the same happening again don't hard switch off a high current continuous load at the switch. Pull the plug on the car and the internal protection in the charger will deal with it = no arcing when you disconnect at the socket.
None of this is EV stuff...
TheDeuce said:
As per my post. Swap the socket front - if it flashed when the load was disconnected there was clearly a significant arc and some flyback voltage. Just swap it out.
Multiple RCD's on a circuit is pointless and not recommended.
To prevent the same happening again don't hard switch off a high current continuous load at the switch. Pull the plug on the car and the internal protection in the charger will deal with it = no arcing when you disconnect at the socket.
None of this is EV stuff...
The socket needs swapping because it's soiled goods now.Multiple RCD's on a circuit is pointless and not recommended.
To prevent the same happening again don't hard switch off a high current continuous load at the switch. Pull the plug on the car and the internal protection in the charger will deal with it = no arcing when you disconnect at the socket.
None of this is EV stuff...
The idea of using a plug in RCCB is that they are (or should be) capable of breaking a very high current without damage.
So ifi it's not convenient to soft switch off by going out to the car, you can just press the 'Test' button and the breaker will break.
Swapping out a mains socket is not a job for every DIYer. A sparks will charge £50 or more, you don't want to be doing that more than once.
The socket should be capable of breaking a 13A current. Maybe the socket's switch was compromised to start with?
Possibly the car plus granny lead presents a complex inductive load which gives the switch a hard time when breaking at full power?
Most high current domestic loads are simple resistive things like heaters. It's not unknown for switching off high power motors (e.g. garden shredder) to take out socket switches.
If switching it with a £15 RCCB kills the RCCB, you know you need to stop the charge at the car, and that knowledge has only cost you £15.
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