DNO says RCD not required

[Rioja]

Greetings to all, first post though been viewing the forum for a while.
By way of introduction, I am a domestic customer and not an electrician in the normal sense - my work involves subsea telecommunication cable systems operating at up to 12kV DC.

Recently got my DNO Western Power Distribution to come and install an isolator (cost about £80). When I said to the WPD installer that this was in readiness for a change of consumer unit as there is currently no RCD protection, his response was along the lines of "You don't really need an RCD as we provide a safety earth". I was so shocked (excuse the pun) by his statement that, I'm sorry to say, I didn't question this further. Needless to say, I will be totally ignoring his advice.

 

[Landril]

Is the unit/equipment outside?
If it is then surely a RCD is required!!

 

[Fin170]

I'm guessing he may of been referring to not needing a Main RCD (or volt switch etc) because the system was not (or no longer) TT

Either way the average DNO man is not usually clued up on the 17th edition so I wouldn't worry

 

[Landril]

Possibly, he is only installing Main breaker on the DNO side, and i suppose it would be up to the installer to put in a board with RCD/RCBO, etc to protect the circuits.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

Greetings to all, first post though been viewing the forum for a while.
By way of introduction, I am a domestic customer and not an electrician in the normal sense - my work involves subsea telecommunication cable systems operating at up to 12kV DC.

Recently got my DNO Western Power Distribution to come and install an isolator (cost about £80). When I said to the WPD installer that this was in readiness for a change of consumer unit as there is currently no RCD protection, his response was along the lines of "You don't really need an RCD as we provide a safety earth". I was so shocked (excuse the pun) by his statement that, I'm sorry to say, I didn't question this further. Needless to say, I will be totally ignoring his advice.

Why would your installation require RCD protection in particular?
What makes it so different from the majority of other installations that are supplied with a network earth connection?

 

[Landril]

I didnt read the info properly thats why in the last post i said it would be down to the installer of the installation not the DNO istallers main switch to be RCD protected if indeed it is needed.

 

[i=p/u]

Just his way of explaining the house isn't tt so not required to have it, thatswhat I guess

 

[Rioja]

My thinking was, as this is a normal residential property and, I would imagine, the average residential customer would consider a DNO engineer installing a main isolator between the meter and consumer unit to be an "electrician" then what was said would leave the average residential customer thinking to install a consumer unit employing RCD/RCBOs would be a waste of money and offer no additional protection.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

He probablly thought that you were refering to an upfront RCD as would be installed in a TT installation.
Although it might be that he is of the opinion that additional protection by means of RCDs is a bit pointless.