earth leakage measurement

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is there a way of measuring the earth leakage of an appliance (computer, monitor etc) without a pat tester or earth leakage clamp meter . ie with a multi meter, megger 1552 or clamp on amp meter.

cheers wayne

 
is there a way of measuring the earth leakage of an appliance (computer, monitor etc) without a pat tester or earth leakage clamp meter . ie with a multi meter, megger 1552 or clamp on amp meter.cheers wayne
How about: ramp test RCD without item plugged in (I'm assuming 1552 has ramp test function), plug item in, repeat ramp test. Difference between tests is item leakage?

 
is there a way of measuring the earth leakage of an appliance (computer, monitor etc) without a pat tester or earth leakage clamp meter . ie with a multi meter, megger 1552 or clamp on amp meter.cheers wayne
see Special locations reply (post 19) in this thread. same thing, just slightly different setup

 
because ive got a problem with a tripping rcd which doesnt trip straight away and i think its down to a few appliances not just the one appliance that are all contributing to it reaching the 30mA (bout 25mA when ramp tested) limit then tripping.

i wondered if there was a way at the appliance plug instead of consumer unit.i doubt there is but thought id ask.

 
Hi there,

If you don't want to use a clamp meter, then the only other way is a milliAmp meter in series with the earth (you could use a multimeter for this - assuming it has a mA range).

O.

 
that may not be accurate enough. even without changing the load, the reading is unlikely to be the same every time you test
Quite right if it's 30 appliances leaking 1mA each it won't be accurate enough, but if it's 3 appliances leaking 10mA each, you'll find them!

 
Hi there,If you don't want to use a clamp meter, then the only other way is a milliAmp meter in series with the earth (you could use a multimeter for this - assuming it has a mA range).

O.
Just done exactly this myself. RCD kept tripping at complete random. No faults found on circuits on either side of board. Used mA meter to find installation (with appliances plugged in and on) had a total leakage of 5.5mA to earth - not enough to trouble a (healthy) 30mA RCD, so came to conclusion RCD is at fault. Just waiting for new RCD now.

I use a Rapitest multimeter - they sell them at B&Q, about

 
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