General RCBO installation

Crumps · Apr 7, 2019

Hi all

I work on site as a contractor and my colleague was talking to one of the in house electricians on site. He does some work of site for somebody else and the conversation turned to RCBO installation briefly. My colleague stated he was installation last week and this in house electrician stated that they are easier than normal circuit breakers as you just put the cable anywhere on the neutral bar, doesn't matter about order.

Now to me this doesn't seem very professional. You should still install them in order as they go along, ie breaker 1 in neutral 1 for at least 2 main reasons.
1. Because you can make it look neater and more professional
2. When you come to have to do something in the board it makes it a lot easier to locate which cable goes to which breaker and do the job quicker and easier.

Just wondering how many people think this way as well?

Charlie_ · Apr 7, 2019

The neutral & earth bars have termination numbers which correspond to their respective circuits, therefore, it is imperative that they actually do correspond with each other

Charlie_ · Apr 7, 2019

Ask him to read chapter 51, section 514

Rpa07 · Apr 7, 2019

He was probably alluding to the fact that there is one neutral bar and one earth bar so not needing to make sure it’s one neutral bar or the other.
I can’t see any willing spark putting them in haphazardly. They would follow numerics for neatness and ease of location.

Wilko · Apr 7, 2019

Hi - your mate is mistaken - its a rare thing that taking a short cut is ok, otherwise it would've always been done like that

.

Crumps · Apr 7, 2019

Thanks, my first thought was that he was wrong. I believe he was just talking about single and not a split unit.

I personally, not even talking about the regs, would put them in order just to make it neater and easier for the next person who might need to do some work on the board.

And he isn't my mate.

Charlie_ · Apr 7, 2019

Show him this thread and you will definitely never be mates

Crumps · Apr 7, 2019

Charlie_ said:
Show him this thread and you will definitely never be mates

Happy with that!

Deleted member 26818 · Apr 7, 2019

There’s no requirement to terminate either the neutrals or the earths in any particular order.
It’s good practice.

Dustydazzler · Apr 7, 2019

I recently took apart a little 3036 board and the original sparks had put all Ns in one terminal and all CPCs in one terminal , actually looked quite nifty

ipf · Apr 7, 2019

Dustydazzler said:
I recently took apart a little 3036 board and the original sparks had put all Ns in one terminal and all CPCs in one terminal , actually looked quite nifty

Talking of earth terminals.....
This boiler control box earthing looks really nifty