On Sun, 18 May 2003 15:06:57 +0100, John Towill wrote:

A word of warning, if you are using an electrical appliance on a
long lead plug the RCD into the end of the extension lead.

ARGH! NO!!

This is just plain wrong and dangerous in that you *think* you have
RCD protection but you haven't. If you damage that extension cable you
have *no* RCD protection. See you at St Peters Gates...

If there is a long lead between you and the LCD the finite time
taken for it to react could give you little or no protection.

The length of the lead is not relevant, unless it's very long and you
have a very sensitive (10mA) RCD then it can be tricky getting the
trip to stay in as you switch on due to the capacitance in the cable.

As for the OPs question modern wiring regulations effectively state
that any socket that *might* be used to power an appliance outside
must be protected by an RCD inside the property. Depending on how you
read this it could mean all sockets have to be RCD protected (it's
possible to throw and extension out of window after all, indeed I have
done that when I wanted power outside and I lived in a 3rd floor
flat...) or just those on the ground floor, the accepted meaning.

To advise properly we really need to know a bit more about the OPs
electrical instalation.

Is there an RCD already in place in the Consumer Unit (CU), aka "fuse
box"?

If so is the CU a split load type? Some circuits RCD protected others
not or a "whole house" RCD.

If an RCD is present what is its rating, 100mA, 30mA, time delayed?

Once we have that information better suggestions can be made as to
what is required.

--
Cheers
Dave. Remove "spam" for valid email.