National house builder offers compete RCD protection for electrical circuits

George Wimpey has become the first national house builder to offer complete RCD protection for all electrical circuits in its houses — substantially reducing the likelihood of electric shocks. Following proposals from Dual Bound, an electrical contractor in Stockton on Tees, and electrical manufacturer Hager, this house builder is using a split load board with 30 mA protection across all electric circuits in a house. The size of consumer unit depends on how large the house is. Typically a six-by-six split board is used, with a 100 A switch disconnector mains and two 30 mA RCDs. If an RCD trips, only half the power and lighting circuits are lost, which is said to meet the Wiring Regulations requirement of minimising inconvenience to the householder. Martin Corney, managing director of Dual Bound, says, ‘In many cases, the cause of an earth-fault current tripping the RCD is due to a faulty portable appliance. We find that the general public is aware of such problems, so they either unplug the equipment themselves or don’t use it. An earth fault should always be investigated anyway. George Wimpey Homes has been trialling and using twin RCD protection for two years, and we have not had a single call out due to a tripped RCD.’

Related links:

• www.hager.co.uk