Last Saturday night our emergency electrician received a call from one of our clients asking us to attend to a property in Alloa which had no power after a flood.
On arrival our electrician found that the Residual Circuit Device (RCD) within the consumer unit had tripped switching off the electricity to a number of circuits within the property. The RCD device had tripped because as it was monitoring the circuits it had sensed an imbalance between conductors due to the water ingress at a socket and had quickly and safely switched off the electricity.
If no RCD device had been installed within the consumer unit then the water ingress problem would have taken longer to become noticed within the electrical system so a much longer delay would have occurred before a Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB) tripped or even much longer if the circuit was protected by old style fuse wire which could potentially pose a fire risk to the property.
RCD devices are now an essential part of modern electrical installations and if you do not have this device installed within your home or property then we strongly recommend that one is installed for both person and property safety.
The Electrical Safety Council have published some FAQ's on RCD devices which explains more but before you visit and read their page watch the video below which highlights why RCD devices should be installed.
On arrival our electrician found that the Residual Circuit Device (RCD) within the consumer unit had tripped switching off the electricity to a number of circuits within the property. The RCD device had tripped because as it was monitoring the circuits it had sensed an imbalance between conductors due to the water ingress at a socket and had quickly and safely switched off the electricity.
If no RCD device had been installed within the consumer unit then the water ingress problem would have taken longer to become noticed within the electrical system so a much longer delay would have occurred before a Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB) tripped or even much longer if the circuit was protected by old style fuse wire which could potentially pose a fire risk to the property.
RCD devices are now an essential part of modern electrical installations and if you do not have this device installed within your home or property then we strongly recommend that one is installed for both person and property safety.
The Electrical Safety Council have published some FAQ's on RCD devices which explains more but before you visit and read their page watch the video below which highlights why RCD devices should be installed.
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