Garage wireing

[Paul shiel]

im in a brand new build and paid for mains into the garage, I've discovered the builder has spurred off the back of one of the front room sockets, through the back of the wall to an external junction and to the consumer unit in the garage. If something causes a trip in the garage The consumer unit in the garage doesn't trip but the front room sockets do!
I know the theory behind this is ok but I'm trying to find out if this is legal practice,as it'll be a big deal to get them to change it

 

[LeeH]

Bad design. 2 RCDs in series of the same type, the one furthest upstream almost always trips due to a reason someone cleverer them me will explain.

Loose the one in the garage or design the circuit correctly so the garage sub main doesn't require RCD protection.

Complain.

 

[Wilko]

Yes, poor design and can create inconvenience. I believe it is likely to be within the regulations, so it's likely not a defect. Whether it has been installed correctly is a different thing. Anyway, to improve it the cable to the garage would need to be replaced and run from the house consumer unit in SWA (say) so it doesn't need RCD as LeeH has said. Just guessing, but it may be a day's work. Do you have any commercial leverage perhaps?

 

[Octopus]

The problem is that that some companies sell "garage" boards which have a RCD main switch..... Which isn't ideal when most house units have rcd's too.

Obviously not designed or installed by a competent spark.

 

[gazdkw82]

Im in a similar situation. However mine doesn't cause any problems.

I purchase one of those 2 way garage CU. it has RCD with 2 mcb's.

A SWA armour is fed to this board from an rcbo .

Iv done RCD tests to see which trips and it's always the garage. If the rcbo in the house trips at any point I'll just change it to a mcb on the non RCD side of the board

 

[Octopus]

Im in a similar situation. However mine doesn't cause any problems.

I purchase one of those 2 way garage CU. it has RCD with 2 mcb's.

A SWA armour is fed to this board from an rcbo .

Iv done RCD tests to see which trips and it's always the garage. If the rcbo in the house trips at any point I'll just change it to a mcb on the non RCD side of the board

I would be amazed if the garage always trips first.... Have you checked the one in the house?

Poor design

 

[Pete999]

Im in a similar situation. However mine doesn't cause any problems.

I purchase one of those 2 way garage CU. it has RCD with 2 mcb's.

A SWA armour is fed to this board from an rcbo .

Iv done RCD tests to see which trips and it's always the garage. If the rcbo in the house trips at any point I'll just change it to a mcb on the non RCD side of the board

Better still change the RCD in the Garage for an Isolator, simples

 

[gazdkw82]

I would be amazed if the garage always trips first.... Have you checked the one in the house?

Poor design

Yeh checked. It's fine.

I know its not an ideal situation but it's my garage and I know about it and it doesn't bother me. I certainly wouldn't do that design for a customer. It was only because the board I got was very cheap and it had an RCD already included.

 

[Wilko]

I can't talk, mine's the same
Lazy bee : I should stop chatting and go fix, or I can have more tea and cake ...

 

[Octopus]

Better still change the RCD in the Garage for an Isolator, simples

Hum.... Change supply to mcb, change rcd in garage board to isolator and fit rcbo for garage sockets. This way when the garage rcbo trips, the lights stay on!

 

[telectrix]

Hum.... Change supply to mcb, change rcd in garage board to isolator and fit rcbo for garage sockets. This way when the garage rcbo trips, the lights stay on!

it's changing to MCB that is his problem, as the feed is taken from a RCD protected RFC.

 

[Octopus]

To non RCD side of cu then

 

[telectrix]

To non RCD side of cu then

which is how it should have been done in the first place, but it was installed by a builder. nuff said.