electric shower IP rateing

[sparky1985]

Hi guys new to this site looking for some information im doing site maintaince on tempory accomandation and we are haveing a number of showers being reported for tripping the breakers i cant bring myself to belive so many showers are breaking so easy is it possible the IP rateing is not sufficient the bathrooms are only roughly 6ft x 6ft no windows just a single 7" extractor fan the report is that they trip dueing haveing a shower what has got me thinking along this line is today removed cover shortly after report came in and i found water over everything i need as much info as possible so i can report this with out haveing to look stupid cheers guys

 

[betty swollocks]

What is the rating of the shower/s?

What is the rating of the fuse/mcb controlling the shower circuit?

Is it a fuse/ mcb problem or is it tripping the rcd controlling the circuit?

Is there an rcd controlling the circuit?

More inclined to believe the shower rating is too high for the circuit protective device than an ip rating issue but based on what you have told us perhaps the showers are letting in water, obviously they shouldn't if fitted correctly but then only you have seen them!

 

[sellers]

showers should be designed to be used withing shower enclosures. They wouldn't sell many if not.

I'd take a look at how they have been installed. I've never found a shower with water inside. Make sure the shower rating isn't too high for the cable and breaker. You may have a 9.5kw (41a) shower on a 32amp breaker.

 

[Evans Electric]

Do you mean breaker as in MCB or Breaker as RCD Sparky 1984?

 

[sparky1985]

Thanks for all response there running 6 mm twin and earth into shower isolator pull cord then onto a 40amp rcbo the consumer unit has 100 amp main breaker switch and its the rcbo tripping

 

[Evans Electric]

Need to restore the IP rating of the shower , as said , there should be no water inside the unit . It may be a leak inside as opposed to the IP rating failed.

And as asked above , what is the rating of shower and any idea of the voltage ? The real voltage I mean .

 

[sparky1985]

I will check the real voltage in the morning and the rateing the bathrooms get really steamy and condesation builds up a lot could this be causeing the water ingress as there is no window and there is 2 bathrooms side by side also could the rcbo be causeing an issue

 

[steptoe]

is the fan running?

is this for real?

 

[sparky1985]

Yes and yes its tempory accomadation the units orignally came pre-fab apparently all tested but the faults that i have found i dont see how the passed i mean buzz bar not installed correctly wires not put in to breaker correctly lights not fully wired but now i have to deal with the maintaince and this is currently the biggest issue was orignally about 2 so they were put down for new shower but now there is like 10-15 with similar issue

 

[steptoe]

need to start at the beginning,

check breaker connections, check sizes,

the 6mm cable could be dropping too much voltage and therefore the current rising too much for the RCBO to handle,

I hate RCBOs, you cant tell if its overload or E fault current.

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 02:04 ---------- Previous post was made at 02:04 ----------

can you hang a MAX / MIN clamp meter on the cables?

 

[binky]

Check for loose connections through out install. In particular look at MCB fit to busbar. Just sound like shoddy work especially as faults are getting more persistent with use.

 

[Andy™]

the 6mm cable could be dropping too much voltage and therefore the current rising too much for the RCBO to handle,

the higher the resistance, the less current used, so its not that

 

[Steve3948]

As stated above there should be no moisture inside the shower, is the 15mm pipe top entry, is the cable top entry.

It sounds like they have all been done in the same manner and incorrectly fitted.

 

[sparky1985]

sorry for the poor info i was on night shift last night basically the units have been thrown together we have been repairing faults that should not been present for the last 3 weeks the showers are redring active 320s 7.2kw electric shower at normal power 240v 7.5 kw or 6.9kw at 230v the power is provided by large scale generators as for the showers they have bottom rear entry water feed all unions are tight and no sign of leaks the mains is feed from a shower isolator just outside the shower cubical so enters shower from behind but must run down behind the wall to enter rear of shower each consumer unit has 2 water heater circuits 16 amp RCBO 1 in each bathroom 1 light ring (2 bathroom light with extractors fitted 2 bed/living area lights 1 outside light)6 amp RCBO 1 socket ring (4 double sockets 1 single socket 1 spur running heater) 32 amp RCBO 2 shower circuits 40 amp RCBO all RCBO are crabtree i have a couple of 40 amp MCB at home thinking of fitting 1 or 2 see how things go

 

[binky]

Generators may have something to do with it, but I have little experience of such things. Thrown together probaly sums up issues??

 

[Evans Electric]

need to start at the beginning,check breaker connections, check sizes,

the 6mm cable could be dropping too much voltage and therefore the current rising too much for the RCBO to handle,

I hate RCBOs, you cant tell if its overload or E fault current.

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 02:04 ---------- Previous post was made at 02:04 ----------

can you hang a MAX / MIN clamp meter on the cables?

Thought I was the only one who prefers "proper" RCDs . The main reason being my loop tester trips them . Went to finish a bathroom job for my M8 last week , had to fit an MCB to carry out loop tests .

 

[steptoe]

Deke,

IMHO SP RCBOs are the devils work, I try and avoid them like the plague!!!!

they are a abortion!!!!!!

 

[sparky1985]

At this is a temporey site could i get away changing the shower breakers to mcb with out comprise as this is what we had to do with most of the main distubution board at the end of the rows take out rcd main switch and fit normal main switch ???

 

[NozSpark]

I would have thought that the fact that it's a temporary installation is all the more reason that RCD protection is required.

Remember that RCDs will usually only trip if there is a fault......

Fix the fault, not the symptom

 

[sellers]

I think its about time you got the tester out of the van.

Test your circuits, run your showers for a while and re test.