French Power

[mort2376]

After spending Christmas in France at a relatives I finally got round to doing a few jobs that they wanted doing.

I don't know if it's just me but the tickle I got from a supposedly dead cable didn't seem half as powerful as to what we get at home.

I know they are on 230v and more often than not we are 240+ but it didn't wake me up as much as a tickle at home does.

 

[binky]

I've never found out the hard way. Having stopped at a few French campsites with very dubious looking pillars, I've taken to using a stick/ something else to touch anything electrical

 

[ProDave]

Is their "neutral" connected to earth, or is there some sort of centretapped arrangement, in which case your "live" could be only 110V wrt earth.

 

[mort2376]

No they are 230v phase to neutral.

 

[binky]

I suspect you got an induced voltage tingle. I'm trying to remember if the French use MCBs that isolate live and neutral, in which case there would be no where for an induced voltage to go, until you stick your fingers in.

 

[mort2376]

Yeah they are all DP mcb. But it wasn't turned off ! Lol.

4 bed property with 6 boards dotted all over. They thought there were only 5 !

 

[poni]

Yeah they are all DP mcb. But it wasn't turned off ! Lol.

4 bed property with 6 boards dotted all over. They thought there were only 5 !

Isolation, isolation !!

I don't know if it's just me but the tickle I got from a supposedly dead cable didn't seem half as powerful as to what we get at home.

we don't get tickles off dead cables, only non isolated live cables will give you a tickle,

how much of a tickle will depend how good a contact with the earth/return path, and how dry was your skin was,

 

[binky]

Yeah they are all DP mcb. But it wasn't turned off ! Lol.

That does tend to cause pain .

I always taught my apprentices to trust nobody, not even me. To reinforce the point I deliberately arranged an RCD protected shock for one apprentice as he was getting cocky...I believe such practices may be frowned upon these days .

 

[Mike P]

Some of the French systems are 240v L-N but the L is earthed!!
Marina’s were a classic example you used to have to cary separate adaptors in France.

 

[Geoff1946]

Some of the French systems are 240v L-N but the L is earthed!!
Marina’s were a classic example you used to have to cary separate adaptors in France.

Surely that's a contradiction in terms. The neutral IS the pole of a supply which is connected to ground.
I suspect what you mean is that the polarisation of the outlets are not always the same.

 

[Captain Kirk]

France was 220v and a lot of rural France is still 220v although like the UK they claim 230v harmonisation due to the percentage tolerance. Our house in Brittany was 220V or less until they re-supplied the town with new U/G HV and LV cabling removing the HV pylons and 6.0mm LV string overheads. Together with the new ground mounted transformers this raised the voltage to 230v.
They are TT systems as the supply company does not supply an earth but they provide a 500mA RCBO at the supply/meter point with the overload being selectable to match your tariff. You pay for the rating of this device on your bill 15A - 60A single phase - higher demand 15A - 60A three phase. If you trip this unit the supply company has to come out to reset it and you get fined.
They use DB MCBs fed by a Common Type A or AC RCD on each busbar. rail

Unless Tesla got it all wrong there is no public distribution system where the Phase conductor is earthed as this defeats all 3 phase electrical theory. If this situation exists it is because there is polarity issue in the installation