Rcbo neutral and functional earths

[Ian1981]

Thoughts on this please, functional earth leads obviously showing signs of heat damage, the greenish coloured neutral leads compared to the blue ones are coloured throughout their length, maybe heat has caused this?

 

[ipf]

Can't really see much from the photos, problem wise, mate.
I can't see heat causing the neutral problem and if the funky earth leads have heat damage, it's strange.

 

[Ian1981]

Can't really see much from the photos, problem wise, mate.
I can't see heat causing the neutral problem and if the funky earth leads have heat damage, it's strange.

I can’t see evidence on the neutral leads, they are just an odd colour compared to the blue ones we all know and can see in the picture.
The functional earths have suffered discolouration by I’d imagine, heat, them rcbos are warm to the touch.
Ive asked Schneider to see if they had produced such coloured leads , I’ve not heard back as yet, never seen Schneider rcbo neutral leads that colour.
The functional earth fly leads are also sticky to the touch

 

[ipf]

I can’t see evidence on the neutral leads, they are just an odd colour compared to the blue ones we all know and can see in the picture.
The functional earths have suffered discolouration by I’d imagine, heat, them rcbos are warm to the touch.
Ive asked Schneider to see if they had produced such coloured leads , I’ve not heard back as yet, never seen Schneider rcbo neutral leads that colour.
The functional earth fly leads are also sticky to the touch

If they were damaged through heat the RCBO's would be goosed. Are they operating?.....unless it's heat from another source. They were the usual cream/white, I take it. Are there changes in colour throughout the length?
Are RCBO's overloaded?

 

[Wilko]

Hi - if the insulation is tacky it’s breaking down rather than burning up, I reckon. Any chance of chemical pollution?

 

[Wilko]

The functional earth fly leads are also sticky to the touch

 

[Ian1981]

If they were damaged through heat the RCBO's would be goosed. Are they operating?.....unless it's heat from another source. They were the usual cream/white, I take it. Are there changes in colour throughout the length?
Are RCBO's overloaded?

Rcbos are operating and test within their perimeters.
The discolouration is throughout their length.
Rcbos are not overloaded and the odd one is still coloured cream , but not many.

 

[Ian1981]

Hi - if the insulation is tacky it’s breaking down rather than burning up, I reckon. Any chance of chemical pollution?

Well The DB is located in a cleaners cupboard which houses cleaning products, DB cover is correctly fitted etc.
The twin and cpc cables are fine tho, although they are LSOH cables.

 

[Vortigern]

The only thing is see there that may give pause for thought is the effects of all lines being taped together. Presumably that is a functional DB, you should be able to detect any heat while it is drawing current. Perhaps all the bunched together lines are causing an effect with full current demand causing heating in an enclosed box and slowly "cooking" the cables above it. Maybe?

 

[pc1966]

The thing is the "functional earth" is only going to carry the odd mA worst-case if the neutral goes open and so the RCBO's fire as a precaution. They won't self-heat. Also the discolourations is so uniform over many of them.

I would be suspicious of fumes from something strored the cleaner's cupboard (maybe in the past) that is behind this.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Agree with pc1966 if it was heat causing the diss colouration I would expect the colour not to be so uniform along the length of the cable, IMO any cooling effect the further away from the heat source would give a tapering effect of the colour, however fumes captured inside a cupboard may give that uniform effect.

Saying all the above the Green cable looks very purpose made.

 

[nicebutdim]

Variation of colour in line & neutral conductors could equally be the result of two different brands of cable, given that colour is uniform throughout the visible length of each. Try comparing Pitacs with Prysmian and you'll find exactly this sort of variation.

The CPCs also appear to have two distinctly different sheaths.

 

[Ian1981]

Yeah the DB is housed in a cleaning cupboard.
I do hate tie wraps on the conductors

 

[Mike Johnson]

I’m an idiot dryer and I think that this is obvious. They do make battery only units .

Variation of colour in line & neutral conductors could equally be the result of two different brands of cable, given that colour is uniform throughout the visible length of each. Try comparing Pitacs with Prysmian and you'll find exactly this sort of variation.

The CPCs also appear to have two distinctly different sheaths.

Doesn't explain the green neutral or the yellow RCBO earth fly lead? As far as I know all manufactures used white.

 

[nicebutdim]

Doesn't explain the green neutral or the yellow RCBO earth fly lead? As far as I know all manufactures used white.

Indeed it does not and I'd taken those fly lead to be CPCs - couldn't understand why they were single coloured.