British Expats

British Expats (https://britishexpats.com/forum/)
-   Australia (https://britishexpats.com/forum/australia-54/)
-   -   Domestic appliances overloading circuit breakers (https://britishexpats.com/forum/australia-54/domestic-appliances-overloading-circuit-breakers-231718/)

MarkMyWords May 20th 2004 1:00 pm

Domestic appliances overloading circuit breakers
 
In the apartment where we have been staying, we have been advised not to run the washing machine and the tumble dryer at the same time because this trips the circuit breaker. Is this generally true of domestic circuits or is it just the apartment managers being cheapskate on their electrics? (I can't get to the back of the appliances to see their ratings.) What a pain in Melbourne (see recent thread on airing cupboards!)

Mark

Florida_03 May 20th 2004 1:10 pm

Re: Domestic appliances overloading circuit breakers
 

Originally posted by MarkMyWords
In the apartment where we have been staying, we have been advised not to run the washing machine and the tumble dryer at the same time because this trips the circuit breaker. Is this generally true of domestic circuits or is it just the apartment managers being cheapskate on their electrics? (I can't get to the back of the appliances to see their ratings.) What a pain in Melbourne (see recent thread on airing cupboards!)

Mark
ELCB (earth leakage circuit breakers) are usually required now. All appliances have some earth leakage and some are worse than others. Earth leakage is cumulative so the more appliances running the higher the likelihood of tripping the ELCB (it is not a rated current problem). My wife could never iron with the TV and dryer and fridge running at the same time.

markeh May 20th 2004 5:42 pm

Re: Domestic appliances overloading circuit breakers
 

Originally posted by Florida_03
ELCB (earth leakage circuit breakers) are usually required now. All appliances have some earth leakage and some are worse than others. Earth leakage is cumulative so the more appliances running the higher the likelihood of tripping the ELCB (it is not a rated current problem). My wife could never iron with the TV and dryer and fridge running at the same time.

I'm no electrician, but I've never heard of this:confused:

The fuses in our house in the UK are mini circuit breakers, and appart from tripping when a light blows when you turn it on, they are ok.

Bye
Mark

Tallpaul May 20th 2004 6:15 pm

Im an electrician i might be able to help on this.
When lights are connected to a fuse board you would use a mcb,where as sockets are connected with a rcd which gives extra protection compared to the mcb.
If you have the washing machine and tumble dryer on at the same all that would happen is it might trip off and you would have to reset it by flicking the trip switch back on no damage done.Give it a try with both on if it doesnt trip then fine if it does then just reset it and then you know you cant have both on.
Personally i dont think it will trip

Sandra May 20th 2004 7:21 pm


Originally posted by Tallpaul
Im an electrician i might be able to help on this.
When lights are connected to a fuse board you would use a mcb,where as sockets are connected with a rcd which gives extra protection compared to the mcb.
If you have the washing machine and tumble dryer on at the same all that would happen is it might trip off and you would have to reset it by flicking the trip switch back on no damage done.Give it a try with both on if it doesnt trip then fine if it does then just reset it and then you know you cant have both on.
Personally i dont think it will trip
There was another similiar thread on this - maybe someone else can point us to it.

I have four main rings in my house in Aus and I can use most things together - but I cannot use two large oil filled electric heaters on the downstairs plugs at the same time, it trips outs and we have to run out and flip the switch ( which I do not like doing in the dark - so we gave one heater away!). Upstairs we seem to be fine, unless we use the steam iron and fill it with water and use it too soon!

All the light switches upstairs make the telly/stereo flicker when turning them off and on

I know there is an electrians answer to this but can someone in laymans terms explain what we have to look out for when buying electrical items re fuses/ampage ring circuits etc. Trial and error is a pain in the arse and expensive!

PS - one thing I have learnt - buy protection for laptops and computers - I got mine fried over here in a storm. Nasty and expensive!

Cheers

MarkMyWords May 21st 2004 12:24 am


Originally posted by Tallpaul
Im an electrician i might be able to help on this.
When lights are connected to a fuse board you would use a mcb,where as sockets are connected with a rcd which gives extra protection compared to the mcb.
If you have the washing machine and tumble dryer on at the same all that would happen is it might trip off and you would have to reset it by flicking the trip switch back on no damage done.Give it a try with both on if it doesnt trip then fine if it does then just reset it and then you know you cant have both on.
Personally i dont think it will trip
Well it has done... twice! That's why they told us to stop doing it. Annoyingly it's not the trip on the mcb that's going (I say "annoyingly" because the mcb is accessible); whichever one goes is buried somewhere behind the w/m and the dryer, which are in a cupboard only just big enough for them and this is supposed to be a holiday so I don't see why I should be shifting big heavy things around.

At this point it's a minor inconvenience but I wanted to find out if it was likely to be a long-term problem when we're here for good. Judging by Sandra's posting, the answer is "yes". Bother. (How old is your house, Sandra, or rather, how old is the wiring?)

Mark

Sandra May 21st 2004 12:48 am


Originally posted by MarkMyWords
At this point it's a minor inconvenience but I wanted to find out if it was likely to be a long-term problem when we're here for good. Judging by Sandra's posting, the answer is "yes". Bother. (How old is your house, Sandra, or rather, how old is the wiring?)

Mark
Ours is an 'old' house in Aus real estate speak - bottom half 34 years old and top bit about 12 I think! We have four separate circuits I think. It happened as well in the previous rental house with the iron! And the coffee percolator until that finaly blew up on our first Christmas morning. Some other things used to trip it out as well in the previous house but we never worked them all out - the babysitter one night ended up leaving the house (and took the kids luckily) cause it tripped out and they didn't know where the box was and they had been sitting in the dark with candles and loads of rental videos!!

We have sort of got used to it and don't have loads of things on together much - until we forget and have to run to flip the switch again. Lucky for us our boxes are now easily accessible, the rental was a pain and I refused to do it in the dark.

anzen12 May 21st 2004 1:38 am


Originally posted by Sandra
I know there is an electrians answer to this but can someone in laymans terms explain what we have to look out for when buying electrical items re fuses/ampage ring circuits etc. Trial and error is a pain in the arse and expensive!

We recently had some extensions completed and unbeknown to us the electrician put in an earth leakage circuit breaker. Later he told me he was required to do so by law.

The problem was he put in a cheaper, lower rated breaker which used to trip all the time. Last week, the blasted thing tripped and wouldn't reset. At the time my wife was in the bath with our 18 month old toddler and it could have been a disaster. We couldn't get an electrician out until the next morning and he told me the breaker was too small. An extra twenty dollars would have bought something suitable when the first one was put in.

Just something to be aware of.

ABCDiamond May 21st 2004 1:49 am

We had exactly the same problem in our house in Sydney, built in 1985. That one had fuse wire that needed changing !!

Here in QLD, we don't have the problem, the house was built in 1995.


All times are GMT. The time now is 1:21 pm.

Powered by vBulletin: ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.