Paul P Posted October 20, 2014 Author Share Posted October 20, 2014 It was more of a small venues that have mobile disco,s. village halls and wedding venue. I was wondering how much of a no no was putting a rcd on the circuit and unbalancing the coil via a suitable resistor, a 8k one connected between Live output and Neutral input would give 30mA enough to trip the RCD. After all that is all the test button does. Quote Trade Member Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywalker Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 It was more of a small venues that have mobile disco,s. village halls and wedding venue. I was wondering how much of a no no was putting a rcd on the circuit and unbalancing the coil via a suitable resistor, a 8k one connected between Live output and Neutral input would give 30mA enough to trip the RCD. After all that is all the test button does. you're talking about shorting live and neutral? no matter what resistor you use, you can't be serious! fire alarms are not supposed to create fires! if you must do that, short between earth and neutral - but i wouldn't advise that either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datadiffusion Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 (edited) Is this guy for real?! Did contactors just get put up to £599 each or something? Edited October 22, 2014 by datadiffusion Quote So, I've decided to take my work back underground.... to stop it falling into the wrong hands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixwheeledbeast Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 I was wondering how much of a no no was putting a rcd on the circuit and unbalancing the coil via a suitable resistor, a 8k one connected between Live output and Neutral input would give 30mA enough to trip the RCD. After all that is all the test button does. Well that didn't go down well with the tsi massive! I agree this definitely should be done using a contactor. I am sure you could find or make up a contactor with a manual reset button if you would prefer a clean push button start. Also I feel it's best to have the sockets in question marked in some way (colour and a warning?) to indicate they are isolated automatically in a fire. There also might be a slight flaw in your idea to imbalance the RCD. If I understand RCD's correctly they may not trip out if there are certain faults in the field wiring. Say a high ohm neutral-earth fault develops on the circuit (or a device for that matter) with a very light load, the imbalance may not be enough to trip the RCD. At the end of the day the RCD is a protection device not an isolation device it should be used in that way IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datadiffusion Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Or like I've done with a Hager board you can actually get a mechanical device that DOES trigger the RCD mechanism, albeit by entirely mechanical means. Quote So, I've decided to take my work back underground.... to stop it falling into the wrong hands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrHappy Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Is this guy for real?! yeah, After all that is all the test button does. I'd assume so ? Quote Mr Veritas God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norman Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Could you not fill a balloon with water, hang it over the consumer unit, fire pop's it, water trips out the board? Quote Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adi Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 To short winded. Quote I really can't be ar**** with it anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrHappy Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Could you not fill a balloon with water, hang it over the consumer unit, fire pop's it, water trips out the board? look forward to seeing you on dragon's den... Quote Mr Veritas God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datadiffusion Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 How about training a monkey to listen out for a siren and turn the power off? And then when it was the end of the night or there wasn't a booking it could earn £££s for you installing alarms! BOOM BOOM! Quote So, I've decided to take my work back underground.... to stop it falling into the wrong hands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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