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

 

[oldtimer]

When doing a CU change I always put the garage on a stand alone RCBO and I wire it to a 40A DP neon switch below the CU and I tell the customer that the garage is stand alone but because the RCBO is quite small you may not notice that it has tripped but the neon on the DP switch tells you when it has.

 

[ackbarthestar]

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...

I'd agree, a non-maintained bulkhead near the board.
Although, Hager used to, probably still do, make a double sized din rail emergency light unit that plugged into an existing distribution board. Once the power fails the little light provides enough illumination to see your way round the MCBs.

 

[plugsandsparks]

I know a couple of non electricians be confused with the red / green flag system on breakers and the like. They were expecting green to be normal i.e. energised and red to be a problem, i.e. not energised, can see the logic from a laymans angle.
Newey do a simple panel lamp with 240v lamp, I was asked to install it outside the cupboard where all the electrcial gubbings were so they could see at a glance whether the sewage system was still powered up. They love it.

 

[Guest111]

I put emergency lights in my home years ago(council house)anyway one night we had a power cut thicko who lived next door came round and saw our lights and said how come your lights are on and everyone elses are off,I explained they were emergency lights at which point thicko says she is going to complain to council as it was unfair that we had them and they had not fitted any in her house.Wish I could have been there when she did lol.

 

[oldtimer]

Whats wrong with getting a rechargeable torch sited next to the CU

 

[Knobhead]

Whats wrong with getting a rechargeable torch sited next to the CU

Old head, common sense! View attachment 11442

 

[Adam W]

Whats wrong with getting a rechargeable torch sited next to the CU

one for each MCB?

 

[oldtimer]

Remember NASA spent milions to get a pen to work in space and the Rusians we they used a pencil so simple works for me

 

[ipf]

Box of matches and a candle on top of the gas meter

 

[oldtimer]

Box of matches and a candle on top of the gas meter

Just the thing to look for gas leaks

 

[La Poste]

Get one of those battery operated round lights next to the board, you press them and the light comes on, I'm sure they do rechargeable ones.


Or what about those stickers that glow in the dark, a red one and a green one, stick those on the MCB's to cover the on/off labels, they glow really nicely without any power but only for a while.

 

[ackbarthestar]

Lol, Yes I should imagine a rechargeable torch, when all the lights have gone out, should do it once you've bounced your way down the stairs and fumbled about looking for it :lol::lol::lol: