French wiring book showing Type AC 40a breaker with N and L wired opposite

[pipunch]

Hi all.

I've just had my house in France upgraded to single phase.

I've bought a consumer unit as i only want a basic set up (minimal electric is used in my house!) and am going to put it in myself.

I have a book which teaches you how to wire up.

The consumer unit comes pre-packed with one Type AC breaker + individual trips and a Type A breaker with its own trips too. I'm therefore assuming that this unit is to be wired for a split load.

The two main breakers have N and L at the top, and N and L at the bottom. Pretty much very diagram in the book shows breakers with NL-NL at the top of the breaker and shows the pair of NL furthest to the right wired N-N-N etc across the board.

However, the one picture that shows the type i have, with the N and L at the top and bottom of the breaker, shows Neutral coming into N, Live coming into L at the top, then Neutral coming out of N at the bottom but going into the top of the first trip in the L slot, and same for the L which is going into the N slot.

I hope this makes sense but something seems wrong to me, i thought all N were wired to N and all L to L. So if you had :

Breaker-20a trip-16a trip-16a trip

Then the wiring would go N + L into the N and L slots in the top of the breaker, the N + L coming out of the N and L slots on the bottom of the breaker into the top N and L slots on the first fuse etc etc.

Am i right? I'm confused because here they use a strip of copper with pins on to stick into the tops so you don't have to wire each fuse with a cable, and every set up with a breaker that has two lots of NL at the top shows the strips of copper linking all the N's together and all the L's together.

Help!

 

[markythesparky]

Read that back fast and outloud and it sounds like a Two Ronnies Sketch!

are they RCD's

 

[dmxtothemax]

QUOTE [ I've just had my house in France upgraded to single phase.] END QUOTE.
"Upgraded" implies it is better than before !
So what did you have before, half a phase ?




posting a picture of the CB will help ?

 

[pipunch]

Read that back fast and outloud and it sounds like a Two Ronnies Sketch!

are they RCD's

Haha!

Sorry i only know what they are in French i don't know the terminology in English. From googling i think they are RCD's yes. 'interrupteur différentiel' for a picture of them!

It would be very easy to explain with a picture.

Basically, i have a unit with two RCD's, and my RCD's have two lots of N and L slots in them. Most here have two lots but they are usually on the top of the breaker. On mine, there are two at the top and two at the bottom so it looks like this:

N L

N L

The top N has the neutral feed and the top L has the live.

On the ones where the breaker looks like this:

N L | N L

The same applies, but on the right hand N and L combo the N links into all the subsequent N's on the individual trips and the L with the L's.

On the only diagram in the book that shows a configuration like mine with ...

N L

N L

... it shows the bottom N linking to the L on the top of the first trip and the L linking to the N.

I hope this made sense! If not i'll try and post a pic.

 

[westward10]

Yes do a pic.

 

[pipunch]

QUOTE [ I've just had my house in France upgraded to single phase.] END QUOTE.
"Upgraded" implies it is better than before !
So what did you have before, half a phase ?




posting a picture of the CB will help ?

Honestly if you'd seen the wiring...it was atrocious.

 

[pipunch]

Ok i'm trying to do a pic..

View attachment 35202

View attachment 35203

 

[pipunch]

Ok so everything on that page has the second lot of neutral and feed poles on the RCB connected with a copper pin block thingy. Which means they are all connected N-N-N-N L-L-L-L etc because they are evenly spaced.

Except the one where the neutral and feeds come from the bottom of the breaker like they do in my box and then go into the first trip. On that picture you can see the black feed cable coming out of the bottom of the RCB and into the N socket on the first trip!

Why is this different to all the other schematics where it's shown N into N, L into L, and then N-N-N-N etc all across the board?

EDIT: For clarity, it says above those three schematics 'The different types of wiring'.

 

[pipunch]

I've got my box (on the sofa at the mo - nowhere near the power supply!) wired up like the big split load scheme at the bottom of the page. My box came like that basically, but with the two RCD's having the 4 poles split top and bottom instead of all in a row at the top. So my question basically is - do i wire up like the split load scheme at the bottom and just put the N and L wires out from the bottom of my RCD's and into the N and L on the first fuse and then stick the copper pin block thingy across N-N-N-N and L-L-L-L or do i follow the scheme on the middle-left of the page and wire the bottom N to the L and the L to the N on the first fuse?

 

[westward10]

Can you not post a pic of your box.

 

[pipunch]

Can you not post a pic of your box.

The box is wired up exactly like the schematic at the bottom only without the live and neutral feeds.

I found a video in French last night where an RCD like mine with the poles on the bottom was wired up neural-neutral and live-live which makes sense so i'm going to just do that.

 

[Pete999]

I take it as it is France all the outgoing CBs are DP?

 

[pipunch]

I take it as it is France all the outgoing CBs are DP?

Yes i was in the equivalent of B&Q yesterday and they didn't have any single pole trips.

 

[Pete999]

Yes i was in the equivalent of B&Q yesterday and they didn't have any single pole trips.

Looks to me like the two connection block L and N are just that, the thing you describe as a copper thingy with pins, is Bus bar to feed the top of the DP CBs the L and N at the bottom are for the out going circuits.

 

[westward10]

With you on that Pete I couldn't tell from pic if they were mcbs or rcbos, made no difference I suppose.