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cmjones01 · 31st Jul 2014, 9:57 am

I hope this isn't too far off-topic, but last year I moved my hobby room from the UK, with 32A ring mains, to Poland, with 16A radial circuits. What I learned was that the UK ring main arrangement is very tolerant of big, difficult loads and high inrush currents, and the radial arrangement...well...isn't.

I can think of three pieces of equipment in regular use in my workshop - isolating transformer, variac and a big battery charger - which almost always caused the 16A breaker to trip when switched on. I never had that problem in the UK with 32A breakers. I've therefore had to go round and add soft-start circuits to the affected gear.

This is something worth considering when planning changes to wiring!

Chris

31st Jul 2014, 9:57 am	#20
cmjones01 Nonode Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Warsaw, Poland and Cambridge, UK Posts: 2,681	Re: RCD trip mode question I hope this isn't too far off-topic, but last year I moved my hobby room from the UK, with 32A ring mains, to Poland, with 16A radial circuits. What I learned was that the UK ring main arrangement is very tolerant of big, difficult loads and high inrush currents, and the radial arrangement...well...isn't. I can think of three pieces of equipment in regular use in my workshop - isolating transformer, variac and a big battery charger - which almost always caused the 16A breaker to trip when switched on. I never had that problem in the UK with 32A breakers. I've therefore had to go round and add soft-start circuits to the affected gear. This is something worth considering when planning changes to wiring! Chris __________________ What's going on in the workshop? http://martin-jones.com/