Residual Current Devices (RCD) or safety switches have been designed for everyone’s personal safety. Although we can do our best to be vigilant using our appliances and power points, we can never protect ourselves 100% of the time. This is where the use of RCDs or safety switches comes into their own, to give you and your family the extra protection against electric shocks and electrocution.
RCD stands for residual current device and is also known as an electrical safety switch. RCDs offer an extra level of protection, which standard fuses and circuit breakers unfortunately don’t quite provide. These safety switches specifically target your personal protection, as they help prevent electric shock.
RCDs are designed to monitor the directional flow of electric currents. Unlike electrical wires, the human body is certainly not built to conduct electricity. The main purpose of RCDs is to halt any flow of electricity from actually reaching us.
Safety switches not only help prevent electric shock, but also circuit breakers in detecting earth leakage faults.
The speed at which safety switches trip the power to your circuit ranges between; 40 – 300 milliseconds after a fault has been detected.
Although this may significantly reduce your risk of injury or death, RCDs are not 100% effective. To specify exactly, a safety switch is only 97% reliable. It is imperative to organise checkups at regular intervals of your home’s wiring and testing your switches every three months.
The focus of the protection is the main difference between safety switches and circuit breakers. Circuit breakers aim to protect your home’s electrical wiring and prevent overloads whereby, safety switches only focus on your personal protection and keeping you and your family safe. Both devices are housed within your switchboard.
To test your RCD Safety Switch press the ‘test’ button on the front of the device and then release it. The button will only test the RCD if an electricity supply is connected. Pressing the test button will simulate an earth leakage fault and indicates whether the device is operating correctly or not.
If you have any concerns about the above matters, call us today for a free safety inspection.
Call Doug on 0431 275 452
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