ELCB Problem - who is right???

[james_lye28]

Setup - 3phase, with 2 ELCB (1 for lighting, 1 for electrical appliances).

No power to kitchen (for electrical appliances) suddenly. Lighting for kitchen ok. Power & lighting for rest of the house ok.

Called electrician on Saturday evening. He came and checked circuit breaker. knocked on the circuit breakers (some terminals sparked) and checked with test pen and multimeter. After that, power to the kitchen came back on. He advised that one of the ELCB (the one for electrical appliances) not functioning properly (intermittent) and had to be changed. Price: Singapore Dollars 380.00. Didn't do anything as I wanted to verify. Probem came back last night - no power for electrical appliances in kitchen.

This morning, checked with another electrical shop. Told them my problem and what other electrician said. Folks at this shop says that problem not with ELCB.

Question: who is right???

 

[tommo2]

The problem probably lies with the MCB feeding the kitchen sockets (NOT the ELCB). Try turning on and off the MCB for kitchen sockets a few times. IF you find that power returns you need a new MCB.
Leave the MCB off for safety until you get it replaced as a faulty MCB can heat up red hot due to a poor connection... You dont wanna be starting fires!!

 

[jeepmadmike]

is the electrical distribution board new? as an electrical engineer i have to say from experiance it is very unusual for an MCB to fail, what is common is the MCB to not have been fitted correctly (the finger from the bus-bar (copper bar in board) is some times not clamped in the MCB terminal and only makes contact by touching it). If it a ELCB (RCD, RCCB, EFA) which is faulty that is not usual but usually they fail and will no longer switch on? take a picture and post it and i might be able to help.