Old car needed the battery charged.

Plugged that in via an extension lead from an outside socket - which has
an historical RCD just inside the house - from before when I fitted a
modern split load CU with RCD.

Charger was working and showing a charge, so left it to get on.

About an hour later, the house RDC tripped.

Unplugging the charger got things back to normal.

5 amp fuse in the charger plug had blown. Charger is an all plastic type
with a two core mains lead.

What sort of fault inside the charger could have caused the RCD to trip?

--
*Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman wrote:

5 amp fuse in the charger plug had blown.

Does charger work again after replacing fuse, or could its dying act
have been to short mains to earth via various cables/car/puddles etc?

On 17/03/2019 14:18, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Old car needed the battery charged.

Plugged that in via an extension lead from an outside socket - which has
an historical RCD just inside the house - from before when I fitted a
modern split load CU with RCD.

Charger was working and showing a charge, so left it to get on.

About an hour later, the house RDC tripped.

Unplugging the charger got things back to normal.

5 amp fuse in the charger plug had blown. Charger is an all plastic type
with a two core mains lead.

What sort of fault inside the charger could have caused the RCD to trip?

Leakage from live or neutral to earth via the battery charging side
through the car body to ground? If it's an old charger, then
transformer breakdown could be the issue.

Cheers
--
Clive

In article ,
Clive Arthur wrote:
On 17/03/2019 14:18, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Old car needed the battery charged.

Plugged that in via an extension lead from an outside socket - which has
an historical RCD just inside the house - from before when I fitted a
modern split load CU with RCD.

Charger was working and showing a charge, so left it to get on.

About an hour later, the house RDC tripped.

Unplugging the charger got things back to normal.

5 amp fuse in the charger plug had blown. Charger is an all plastic
type with a two core mains lead.

What sort of fault inside the charger could have caused the RCD to
trip?

Leakage from live or neutral to earth via the battery charging side
through the car body to ground? If it's an old charger, then
transformer breakdown could be the issue.

It's an SMPS type - no large transformer.

Of course the negative side of the DC output goes to the car bodywork.
Could enough current flow through the tyres?

--
*How's my driving? Call 999*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 17/03/2019 14:18, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Old car needed the battery charged.

Plugged that in via an extension lead from an outside socket - which has
an historical RCD just inside the house - from before when I fitted a
modern split load CU with RCD.

Charger was working and showing a charge, so left it to get on.

About an hour later, the house RDC tripped.

Unplugging the charger got things back to normal.

5 amp fuse in the charger plug had blown. Charger is an all plastic type
with a two core mains lead.

What sort of fault inside the charger could have caused the RCD to trip?


Some illegal event on the bus bar?
;

On Sun, 17 Mar 2019 15:00:41 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Clive Arthur wrote:
On 17/03/2019 14:18, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Old car needed the battery charged.

Plugged that in via an extension lead from an outside socket - which has
an historical RCD just inside the house - from before when I fitted a
modern split load CU with RCD.

Charger was working and showing a charge, so left it to get on.

About an hour later, the house RDC tripped.

Unplugging the charger got things back to normal.

5 amp fuse in the charger plug had blown. Charger is an all plastic
type with a two core mains lead.

What sort of fault inside the charger could have caused the RCD to
trip?

Leakage from live or neutral to earth via the battery charging side
through the car body to ground? If it's an old charger, then
transformer breakdown could be the issue.

It's an SMPS type - no large transformer.

Of course the negative side of the DC output goes to the car bodywork.
Could enough current flow through the tyres?

If you unplugged only the charger to get things back to normal, it,s
the only explanation.

An SMPS invariably uses a fully wound transformer though, they are
pretty cheap when running at kHz.

If the charger was blowing the RCD with the plug fuse blown, it limits
the possibilities a bit.

A damp plug/ extension, miswiring and damp or an event elsewhere and
sheer coincidence that the fuse blew at some point during the charge.

Repeat the scenario and observe.

Of course if the car is very old it might only be suitable for
charging via ELCB's :-)

AB

On Sun, 17 Mar 2019 14:18:18 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:


What sort of fault inside the charger could have caused the RCD to trip?

Anything on the AC side which caused a short. RCD's have a habit of
tripping on L to N faults which involve high currents. Most commonly
seen when GU10 bulbs fail the RCD will often trip even though there is
no leakage to earth.

On 17/03/2019 14:18, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Old car needed the battery charged.

Plugged that in via an extension lead from an outside socket - which has
an historical RCD just inside the house - from before when I fitted a
modern split load CU with RCD.

Charger was working and showing a charge, so left it to get on.

About an hour later, the house RDC tripped.

Unplugging the charger got things back to normal.

5 amp fuse in the charger plug had blown. Charger is an all plastic type
with a two core mains lead.

What sort of fault inside the charger could have caused the RCD to trip?

Could just be it introduced a significant transient back into the
mains... If the RCD was already sensitised, then the just dissipating
the transient to earth through connected devices input filters could be
enough.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Where is this plug? Is it in a so called waterproof box outside. I was just
wondering if water got into the plug at some point? Obviously it was not the
old fried spider thing that often happens to 13 amp plugs to cause this!
I think the crucial question is, did the charger actually did?
Brian

--
----- --
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Clive Arthur wrote:
On 17/03/2019 14:18, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Old car needed the battery charged.

Plugged that in via an extension lead from an outside socket - which
has
an historical RCD just inside the house - from before when I fitted a
modern split load CU with RCD.

Charger was working and showing a charge, so left it to get on.

About an hour later, the house RDC tripped.

Unplugging the charger got things back to normal.

5 amp fuse in the charger plug had blown. Charger is an all plastic
type with a two core mains lead.

What sort of fault inside the charger could have caused the RCD to
trip?

Leakage from live or neutral to earth via the battery charging side
through the car body to ground? If it's an old charger, then
transformer breakdown could be the issue.

It's an SMPS type - no large transformer.

Of course the negative side of the DC output goes to the car bodywork.
Could enough current flow through the tyres?

--
*How's my driving? Call 999*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Peter Parry wrote:
On Sun, 17 Mar 2019 14:18:18 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:


What sort of fault inside the charger could have caused the RCD to trip?

Anything on the AC side which caused a short. RCD's have a habit of
tripping on L to N faults which involve high currents. Most commonly
seen when GU10 bulbs fail the RCD will often trip even though there is
no leakage to earth.

Interesting. Got lots of GU 10 here, but never had the RCD trip when one
blew. Just the circuit MCB.

--
*A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kickboxing.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sunday, 17 March 2019 17:51:14 UTC, Peter Parry wrote:
On Sun, 17 Mar 2019 14:18:18 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:


What sort of fault inside the charger could have caused the RCD to trip?

Anything on the AC side which caused a short. RCD's have a habit of
tripping on L to N faults which involve high currents. Most commonly
seen when GU10 bulbs fail the RCD will often trip even though there is
no leakage to earth.

- the correct answer.


NT