Protection from Electric shocks

anm

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Hi
Are there any recommendations on circuit breakers that cut off the electricity of house in case someone gets an electric shock?
A couple of days back I got an electric shock while switching on the light in my bathroom. I survived this time. When I called an electrician, he said the switch is faulty. Since light connections all over the house has only live and neutral connections, earthing won't help in this case. Also a lot of AV gear live CDP, amp, TT have only 2 wires going into them. I have felt current in almost all of these, and tested with a tester too. I have a little kid who likes to touch every equipment, and is very fond of turning knobs on amp, touching power sockets etc.

Are there any recommendations for installing a circuit breaker? Changing all equipments and wiring all over the place is not a feasible option. Moreover, this is a rented place.
 
Get an ELCB (Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker) of a suitable capacity & a good make installed in the main breaker box of your house.
 
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thanks Kamal. How to figure out a good capacity? Do you recommend any brand and any idea how much should it cost?
Edit: I read this article - Earth leakage circuit breaker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seems RCD are the new devices. Any inputs?

Please note one thing: Although an ELCB will hopefully protect you from electric shocks, it is also quite sensitive and will trip quite often. Hence, please make sure it is installed in a place that you can access easily to reset the switch. The reason for tripping will usually be loose contacts, sparking, or bad earthing (voltage fluctuation is usually not an issue though). Most houses nowadays have quite poor earthing by default which aggravates the problem.
 
Well,I got an ELCB mfd by English Electric (Now Areva, I understand) installed abt 17-18 yrs back,& its still working fine.
If RCD's are now available, you could go for them.
As for the make, the Wiki article mentions brand names ,some of which are available here.
As regards capacity, just take along you elec bill which shows the sanctioned load & the shop guy shld be able to give you a piece which would comfortably cover it.
I know conditions are far from perfect, but I woud prefer a sensitive device rather than one which is not that responsive or is sluggish to trip.
Better a bit of nuisance than a disaster.
 
Well,I got an ELCB mfd by English Electric (Now Areva, I understand) installed abt 17-18 yrs back,& its still working fine.
If RCD's are now available, you could go for them.
As for the make, the Wiki article mentions brand names ,some of which are available here.
As regards capacity, just take along you elec bill which shows the sanctioned load & the shop guy shld be able to give you a piece which would comfortably cover it.
I know conditions are far from perfect, but I woud prefer a sensitive device rather than one which is not that responsive or is sluggish to trip.
Better a bit of nuisance than a disaster.

Hi Kamal,

ELCB modules have a test switch on them - the ELCB should trip when that switch is depressed - it is mandatory that such equipment is checked every now and then - if the ELCB does not trip when the test switch is used, the ELCB must be replaced immediately.

regards
 
Suri, I was informed abt the use of the test button when I bought the ELCB & I do check it for proper functioning ,regularly.
In my case also, as with Anm, this was considered very impt what with a pair of curious youngsters poking around evrywhere.
 
If you have a freezer with much stuff in it, it is a good idea to have it connected through a non-protected circuit, or your food could be sludge when you return from a holiday!

I do not have one here, but I did in my UK house. It tripped very, very rarely, and usually because of something I was messing with without turning off first. fingers-of-one-hand numbers over twelve years!

How does it work here with three phases? One on each phase?

Three-phase just never occurs in UK domestic wiring.
 
thanks everyone.
I checked on the board on my house. It does have an ELCB installed however it is bypassed. Since it is a rented house, recently purchased by my land lord, I have no idea about its history, but it seems either it could be faulty, or someone bypassed it as it may have given a lot of trouble.
There was an electrician in our house yesterday and he was very reluctant in testing it. He quoted 4000 rs for a new one. When I asked him to check it if it was working fine, he said he has to first do all the connections in the house with it just to test it. I find it difficult to digest this explanation.

Kamal, this one also is from English Electrical and reads "Residual Current Device". Need help to test its functionality.

regards
 
Ask another electrician.All that he needs to do is to route the mains wires coming from the meter thru the ELCB/RCD first & then to the other breakers.
That done, he shld use the test button to check that its functioning ok & also by simulating an earth leakage to see how responsive the device is.
If the device faults out , get a new one-you can carry it with you when you move houses.
 
Similar devices are used in UK to protect users of power tools, especially garden tools. Electric mowers, strimmers, hedge cutters, etc etc are common, and running over the cable is far from unknown.

What is missing from this, though, is a test button (always comforting to know it works) and (unless hidden) a reset button.
 
Similar devices are used in UK to protect users of power tools, especially garden tools. Electric mowers, strimmers, hedge cutters, etc etc are common, and running over the cable is far from unknown.

What is missing from this, though, is a test button (always comforting to know it works) and (unless hidden) a reset button.

Test button would be nice yeah. This one has auto-reset.

Regards
 
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