Mains hook up Problems

I used to work as an electrician and I have been out to jobs where the only thing that needed doing was resetting the RCD.
Sometimes when the RCD trips it does not go all the way down, requiring you to flick the switch all the way down and then back up.
 
It's a funny old world, but we live in the UK where Earth, Live and Neutral are rigidly defined and are allocated to specific pins on our unique plugs.

In Europe, they have reversible plugs in most of the western European countries, so Live and Neutral can be either way round, purely by the way you plug your EHU cable in.

Inside your motorhome, it matters not which way things come in as long as you have an isolating 2-pole RCD fitted. Nothing will matter UNLESS someone has done a silly and put Neutral and Earth together at the box, in which case things could get nasty very quickly.

I personally don't earth every single bit of metal in the vehicle, I only take power to proper 3-pin earthed sockets and appliances that take a proper earth connection and that are fed from the AC box.

There should be no way that any live/neutral reversal should endanger anyone, not least children who should not have access to anything with live connections in the first place.

Peter
 
see posts 7 & 9

Alf


Beemer said:
I used to work as an electrician and I have been out to jobs where the only thing that needed doing was resetting the RCD.
Sometimes when the RCD trips it does not go all the way down, requiring you to flick the switch all the way down and then back up.
Click to expand...
 
listerdiesel said:
It's a funny old world, but we live in the UK where Earth, Live and Neutral are rigidly defined and are allocated to specific pins on our unique plugs.

In Europe, they have reversible plugs in most of the western European countries, so Live and Neutral can be either way round, purely by the way you plug your EHU cable in.

Inside your motorhome, it matters not which way things come in as long as you have an isolating 2-pole RCD fitted. Nothing will matter UNLESS someone has done a silly and put Neutral and Earth together at the box, in which case things could get nasty very quickly.

I personally don't earth every single bit of metal in the vehicle, I only take power to proper 3-pin earthed sockets and appliances that take a proper earth connection and that are fed from the AC box.

There should be no way that any live/neutral reversal should endanger anyone, not least children who should not have access to anything with live connections in the first place.

Peter
Click to expand...

Thing is peter kids have a habit of doing the most silly things when your back is turned for a split second,yes i do know with a c/breaker all should be fine but i still like things done right.
 
Thanks I will try a different lead if I can find one, have switched the switch up a d doe
Down and plugged it in at home there is still no power to anything that runs in 240
 
StevenJ said:
Actually only a few weeks ago in a school



Trust me special kind of stupid is still prevelant
Click to expand...

My house has no trip but just fuses,looks like another job for me to do as if my valve tv has the plug wired wrong and falls into the bath it could be shocking.:scared:
On a more sensible note what size of trip unit should i be looking to install at home as im down for a new meter soon and i would like to get this sorted along with my a/b change over switch for my genny.
 
trevskoda said:
My house has no trip but just fuses,looks like another job for me to do as if my valve tv has the plug wired wrong and falls into the bath it could be shocking.:scared:
On a more sensible note what size of trip unit should i be looking to install at home as im down for a new meter soon and i would like to get this sorted along with my a/b change over switch for my genny.
Click to expand...

Try something like this Trev

10 Way Insulated Dual Split Populated Consumer Unit - 34 LEFT
 
I could do with some of them myself lol

I suppose I really should do
 
I already have a big industrial 10 bit fuse box which i fitted many years back so i will look at replacement rcd fuses or can i put a sep rcd unit before the box as brother inlaw/outlaw has them in his cave,what trip rating should i use 80 or 100.
I dont want to change the whole fuse box.
 
What about the time you drove off and pulled the EHU cable out of the socket? that normally yanks one connection, at least, out of the socket plug. I did it last month at home as I had forgotten it was in, and I had to get the van on the road as the football crowd cars were filling my road, and I was going to France at 1630. I would have been trapped in my drive otherwise and missed the train. Hate football crowds.
 
trevskoda said:
I already have a big industrial 10 bit fuse box which i fitted many years back so i will look at replacement rcd fuses or can i put a sep rcd unit before the box as brother inlaw/outlaw has them in his cave,what trip rating should i use 80 or 100.
I dont want to change the whole fuse box.
Click to expand...


Looking to see if it's permissable in Regs , not 100% sure , I don't do domestic so it's not an area I'm familiar with.
 
phase3begins said:
Not unknown for the external socket to have a broken connection inside the housing. Caused by the wiggling when plugging / unplugging the EHU lead.
Easy to check as the whole connector unscrews.
Click to expand...

Nothing was unplugged one day working the next not
 
hairydog said:
If you use a french plug (or any other euro socket plug) you have a 50-50 chance of RP. The plugs can be inserted either way up. It's not an issue. There is no way to prevent "reverse" polarity because there is no such thing when the plugs are reversible.
Click to expand...
That's pretty much what I said re euro plugs, I also mentioned travel adapters, which people tend to put in a socket earth pin uppermost. In that scenario you can get rp ,,we would wire so no rp was present when an adaptor used that way. In addition we had British built vans on the fleet with 3 pin plugs so Rp was an issue with them.

Easiest remedy was just to swop wires over on the ehu cable , but on some of the Foreign vans for the reasons that you mention it wasn't uncommon individual sockets were wired RP.

In the context of a Motorhome, and French boxes a good chance of RP, To correct it is quite simple make up a separate fly lead between camp site box and ehu cable.

Our technical bosses were with Trev on this topic, Considering holiday accommodation, and the inquisitive nature of little fingers, They wanted the vans correct polarity when used normally.

Channa
 
Re the OP's problem. For my money you have a loose or poor connection somewhere.

I would start with the ehu cable, check that both the male female connectors are connected and clean ( I have moisture ingress before now giving a bad/no contact)

I would use a multimeter to check on the ehu cable you have continuity, the slightest nick in the cable can be a problem. ( borrowing a separate cable saves 15 mins on this part)

I would as others have said and possibly the culprit check that the socket going into to your van nothing has come loose it does happen, I had it on my own van.

My own way of going about things which I did on the statics ( I am not saying it is right but worked for me) Is once you are happy the cables and connections are good. Switch off all the mcb's and rcd. Switch the rcd on ..and switch on the mcb's one by one. At this stage you should have electric . If the mcb should trip the rcd that circuit is the issue. It could be sockets water heater fridge etc.

I apologise if I sound Granny trying to suck eggs. But from the problem described , the remedy and checking process needs to be robust and logical, We all know it is going to be something simple to fix, I just think in times like this it pays to be methodical in fault finding

Channa

pP.s probably not helped but my two penneth
 
yes

channa said:
Re the OP's problem. For my money you have a loose or poor connection somewhere.

I would start with the ehu cable, check that both the male female connectors are connected and clean ( I have moisture ingress before now giving a bad/no contact)

I would use a multimeter to check on the ehu cable you have continuity, the slightest nick in the cable can be a problem. ( borrowing a separate cable saves 15 mins on this part)

I would as others have said and possibly the culprit check that the socket going into to your van nothing has come loose it does happen, I had it on my own van.

My own way of going about things which I did on the statics ( I am not saying it is right but worked for me) Is once you are happy the cables and connections are good. Switch off all the mcb's and rcd. Switch the rcd on ..and switch on the mcb's one by one. At this stage you should have electric . If the mcb should trip the rcd that circuit is the issue. It could be sockets water heater fridge etc.

I apologise if I sound Granny trying to suck eggs. But from the problem described , the remedy and checking process needs to be robust and logical, We all know it is going to be something simple to fix, I just think in times like this it pays to be methodical in fault finding

Channa

pP.s probably not helped but my two penneth
Click to expand...

And it is on topic lol;)
 
Thanks guys for all your advice, it turned out to be the lead, so were back up and running again, and thanks again to Alf for offering to cross the border into Rotherham to help out.
 
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