Bored and had an idea

[rmaynard]

I had a thought of adding a green and red led to mcb's and rcbo's to be able to determine which has tripped in the event of having no lighting or other power, like so



if this is possible it would also help the elderly or people with limited sight

 

[honeymonster]

Hi, You would just need to connect a LED in series with a 2.2k ohm 2W resistor across both terminals of the MCB/RCB, so that when it tripped, a small current would then pass via the resistor/ LED which will light the LED.

 

[Adam W]

Alternatively you could fit an emergency bulkhead next to the consumer unit.

 

[telectrix]

Alternatively you could fit an emergency bulkhead next to the consumer unit.

one for each MCB?

 

[Adam W]

I suppose you could if you wanted to, although it would make more sense just to have one covering the whole board so you can see the position of each protective device a little better, even if the whole house (or just the area around the consumer unit) were plunged into darkness in the event of, say, a power cut.
It would also give adequate light to be able to see to turn the breaker back on, or change the consumer unit.

 

[Knobhead]

Anything that bridges the RCD or RCBO would be regarded as compromising the function of the unit. IE total isolation.

 

[telectrix]

good point.

 

[Darkwood]

You could simplify things and just read which one say off..... :iamwithstupid:

 

[Darkwood]

good point.

on a tangent here tel'... do you think you can get another 36 posts done and cross the 15k mark and earn your new title of forum stalker?

 

[Andy78]

A breaker tripped off against a line of ones that are on usually stands out anyway. Didn't hager use to put a visual indicator on some mcbs ? Not lit, just a red or green panel.

 

[Darkwood]

Joking aside you could use the output of each mcb and rcbo and have them hold open a miniture relay which uses a seperate power source to iluminate a bank of green for on and red for off led's, even using a PLC which displays a large print message on a screen but starting to spend the pennies there.

 

[Knobhead]

There’s a system that uses auto re-closers. It was mentioned on the site a while ago.
Saves even going looking for what’s tripped.

 

[Adam W]

There’s a system that uses auto re-closers. It was mentioned on the site a while ago.
Saves even going looking for what’s tripped.

I understand the protective device at the substation automatically closes after a while under the assumption the fault has cleared, but in a domestic consumer unit that doesn't sound very safe to me.

 

[Guitarist]

Many years ago I worked with a guy (a fellow electrician) who had installed emergency lighting in his bungalow, including a fitting above his CU, for that very reason. We had a lot of power cuts back then...

 

[ipf]

There’s a system that uses auto re-closers. It was mentioned on the site a while ago.
Saves even going looking for what’s tripped.

Intermittent faults can be awkward enough as it is without having to find out which breaker tripped.lol.