Working Principle of ELCB and RCB Protection

Working Principle of ELCB and RCB | Electrical Notes & Articles
9/7/2013
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Working Principle of ELCB and RCB

October 1, 2011 27 Comments
Working Principle of ELCB and RCB:

An Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker (ELCB) is a device used to directly detect currents leaking to earth from an installation and
cut the power and mainly used in TT earthing systems. There are two types of ELCBs, 1. Voltage Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker (voltage-ELCB) 2. Current Earth Leakage Current Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker (Current-ELCB). Voltage-ELCBs were first introduced about sixty years ago and Current-ELCB was first introduced about forty years ago. For many years, the voltage operated ELCB and the differential current operated ELCB were both referred to as ELCBs because it was a simpler name to remember. But the use of a common name for two different devices gave rise to considerable confusion in the electrical industry. If the wrong type was used on an installation, the level of protection given could be substantially less than that intended. To ignore this confusion, IEC decided to apply the term Residual Current Device (RCD) to differential current operated ELCBs. Residual current refers to any current over and above the load current
Voltage Base ELCB.

Voltage-ELCB is a voltage operated circuit breaker. The device will function when the Current passes through the ELCB. Voltage-ELCB contains relay Coil which it being connected to the metallic load body at one end and it is connected to ground wire at the other end. If the voltage of the Equipment body is rise (by touching Phase to metal Part or Failure of Insulation of Equipment) which could cause the difference between earth and load body voltage, the danger of electric shock will occur. This voltage difference will produce an electric current from the load metallic body passes the relay loop and to earth. When voltage on the equipment metallic body rose to the danger level which exceed to 50Volt, the flowing current through relay loop could move the relay contact by disconnecting the supply current to avoid from any danger electric shock. The ELCB detects fault currents from live to the earth (ground) wire within the installation it protects. If sufficient voltage appears across the ELCBs sense coil, it will switch off the power, and remain off until manually reset. A voltage-sensing ELCB does not sense fault currents from live to any other earthed body.
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These ELCBs monitored the voltage on the earth wire, and disconnected the supply if the earth wire voltage was over 50 volts. These devices are no longer used due to its drawbacks like if the fault is between live and a circuit earth, they will disconnect the supply. However, if the fault is between live and some other earth (such as a person or a metal water pipe), they will NOT disconnect, as the voltage on the circuit earth will not change. Even if the fault is between live and a circuit earth, parallel earth paths created via gas or water pipes can result in the ELCB being bypassed. Most of the fault current will flow via the gas or water pipes, since a single earth stake will inevitably have a much higher impedance than hundreds of meters of metal service pipes buried in the ground.
The way to identify an ELCB is by looking for green or green and yellow earth wires entering the device. They rely on
voltage returning to the trip via the earth wire during a fault and afford only limited protection to the installation and no personal protection at all. You should use plug in 30mA RCDs for any appliances and extension leads that may be used outside as a minimum.
Advantages
ELCBs have one advantage over RCDs: they are less sensitive to fault conditions, and therefore have fewer nuisance trips. While voltage and current on the earth line is usually fault current from a live wire, this is not always the case, thus there are situations in which an ELCB can nuisance trip. When an installation has two connections to earth, a nearby high current lightning strike will cause a voltage gradient in the soil, presenting the ELCB sense coil with enough voltage to cause it to trip. If the installations earth rod is placed close to the earth rod of a neighboring building, a high earth leakage current in the other building can raise the local ground potential and cause a voltage difference across the two earths, again tripping the ELCB. If there is an accumulated or burden of currents caused by items with lowered insulation resistance due to older equipment, or with heating elements, or rain conditions can cause the insulation resistance to lower due to moisture tracking. If there is a some mA which is equal to ELCB rating than ELCB may give nuisance Tripping. If either of the earth wires become disconnected from the ELCB, it will no longer trip or the installation will often no longer be properly earthed. Some ELCBs do not respond to rectified fault current. This issue is common for ELCBs and RCDs, but ELCBs are on average much older than RCB so an old ELCB is more likely to have some uncommon fault current waveform that it will not respond to. Voltage-operated ELCB are the requirement for a second connection, and the possibility that any additional connection to earth on the protected system can disable the detector. Nuisance tripping especially during thunderstorms.
Disadvantages:
They do not detect faults that dont pass current through the CPC to the earth rod. They do not allow a single building system to be easily split into multiple sections with independent fault protection, because earthing systems are usually use common earth Rod. They may be tripped by external voltages from something connected to the earthing system such as metal pipes, a TN-S earth or a TN-C-S combined neutral and earth. As electrically leaky appliances such as some water heaters, washing machines and cookers may cause the ELCB to trip. ELCBs introduce additional resistance and an additional point of failure into the earthing system.
Can we assume whether Our Electrical System is protected against Earth Protection or not by only Pressing ELCB Test Switch?
Checking the health of the ELCB is simple and you can do it easily by pressing TEST Push Button Switch of ELCB. The test push-button will test whether the ELCB unit is working properly or not. Can we assume that If ELCB is Trip after Pressing TEST Switch of ELCB than your system is protected against earth protection? Then you are wrong. The test facility provided on the home ELCB will only confirm the health of the ELCB unit, but that test does not confirm that the ELCB will trip when an electric shock hazard does occur. It is a really sad fact that all the while this misunderstanding has left many homes totally unprotected from the risk of electric shocks. This brings us or alarming us to think over second basic requirement for earth protection. The second requirement for the proper operation of a home shock protection system is electrical grounding. We can assume that the ELCB is the brain for the shock protection, and the grounding as the backbone. Therefore, without a functional grounding (Proper Earthing of Electrical System) there is totally no protection against electrical shocks in your house even if You have installed ELCB and its TEST switch show proper result. Looking after the ELCB alone is not enough. The electrical Earthing system must also be in good working order for the shock protection system to work. In addition to routine inspections that should be done by the qualified electrician, this grounding should preferably be inspected regularly at shorter intervals by the homeowner and need to pour Water in Earthing Pit at Regular interval of Time to minimize Earth Resistance.
Current-operated ELCB (RCB):

Current-operated ELCBs are generally known as Residual-current devices (RCD). These also protect against earth leakage. Both circuit conductors (supply and return) are run through a sensing coil; any imbalance of the currents means the magnetic field does not perfectly cancel. The device detects the imbalance and trips the contact. When the term ELCB is used it usually means a voltage-operated device. Similar devices that are current operated are called residual-current devices. However, some companies use the term ELCB to distinguish high sensitivity current operated 3 phase
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residual-current devices. However, some companies use the term ELCB to distinguish high sensitivity current operated 3 phase devices that trip in the milliamp range from traditional 3 phase ground fault devices that operate at much higher currents.
Typical RCB circuit:

The supply coil, the neutral coil and the search coil all wound on a common transformer core. On a healthy circuit the same current passes through the phase coil, the load and return back through the neutral coil. Both the phase and the neutral coils are wound in such a way that they will produce an opposing magnetic flux. With the same current passing through both coils, their magnetic effect will cancel out under a healthy circuit condition. In a situation when there is fault or a leakage to earth in the load circuit, or anywhere between the load circuit and the output connection of the RCB circuit, the current returning through the neutral coil has been reduced. Then the magnetic flux inside the transformer core is not balanced anymore. The total sum of the opposing magnetic flux is no longer zero. This net remaining flux is what we call a residual flux. The periodically changing residual flux inside the transformer core crosses path with the winding of the search coil. This action produces an electromotive force (e.m.f.) across the search coil. An electromotive force is actually an alternating voltage. The induced voltage across the search coil produces a current inside the wiring of the trip circuit. It is this current that operates the trip coil of the circuit breaker. Since the trip current is driven by the residual magnetic flux (the resulting flux, the net effect between both fluxes) between the phase and the neutral coils, it is called the residual current devise. With a circuit breaker incorporated as part of the circuit, the assembled system is called residual current circuit breaker (RCCB) or residual current devise (RCD). The incoming current has to pass through the circuit breaker first before going to the phase coil. The return neutral path passes through the second circuit breaker pole. During tripping when a fault is detected, both the phase and neutral connection is isolated. RCD sensitivity is expressed as the rated residual operating current, noted In. Preferred values have been defined by the IEC, thus making it possible to divide RCDs into three groups according to their In value. High sensitivity (HS): 6- 10- 30 mA (for direct-contact / life injury protection) Standard IEC 60755 (General requirements for residual current operated protective devices) defines three types of RCD depending on the characteristics of the fault current. Type AC: RCD for which tripping is ensured for residual sinusoidal alternating currents
Sensitivity of RCB:
Medium sensitivity (MS): 100- 300- 500- 1000 mA (for fire protection) Low sensitivity (LS): 3- 10- 30 A (typically for protection of machine)
Type of RCB:
Type A: RCD for which tripping is ensured for residual sinusoidal alternating currents for residual pulsating direct currents For residual pulsating direct currents superimposed by a smooth direct current of 0.006 A, with or without phase-angle control, independent of the polarity. Type B: RCD for which tripping is ensured as for type A for residual sinusoidal currents up to 1000 Hz for residual sinusoidal currents superposed by a pure direct current for pulsating direct currents superposed by a pure direct current for residual currents which may result from rectifying circuits three pulse star connection or six pulse bridge connection two pulse bridge connection line-to-line with or without phase-angle monitoring, independently of the polarity There are two groups of devices:
Break time of RCB:

1. G (general use) for instantaneous RCDs (i.e. without a time delay) Minimum break time: immediate Maximum break time: 200 ms for 1x In, 150 ms for 2x In, and 40 ms for 5x In 1. S (selective) or T (time delayed) for RCDs with a short time delay (typically used in circuits containing surge suppressors) Minimum break time: 130 ms for 1x In, 60 ms for 2x In, and 50 ms for 5x In Maximum break time: 500 ms for 1x In, 200 ms for 2x In, and 150 ms for 5x In
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About Jignesh.Parmar
Jignesh Parmar has completed his B.E(Electrical) from Gujarat University. He has more than 11 years experience in Power Transmission-Power Distribution-Electrical energy theft detection-Electrical Maintenance-Electrical Projects(Planning-Designingcoordination-Execution). He is Presently associate with one of the leading business group as a Assistant Manager at Ahmedabad,India. He is Freelancer Programmer of Advance Excel and design useful Excel Sheets of Electrical Engineering as per IS,NEC,IEC,IEEE codes. He is technical Author for "Electrical Mirror" and "Electrical India" Magazines. He is Technical Blogger and Familiar with English, Hindi, Gujarati, French languages. He wants to Share his experience & knowledge and help technical enthusiasts to find suitable solutions and updating themselves on various Engineering Topics.
27 Responses to Working Principle of ELCB and RCB

1.
Dharminder says: October 2, 2011 at 1:16 am

Thank a lot Sir, Reply
kkk says: December 31, 2011 at 12:22 pm

good explanation thanks Reply
cmeshe says: May 25, 2013 at 11:14 am

Very Good & Very Clear Explanation of RCB / ELCB, TQVM! However, can you please give a statistic on the cases of Electric shock and or electrocution due to the malfunction of RCB / ELCB. Thanks again. Reply 2.
GEE says: December 3, 2011 at 11:54 am

any body have note about relay calibration?? like over current relay, earth fault relay, earth leakage relay. i want to learn using secondary injection test. and i must know about its calculation.. please. Reply
3.
GEE says: December 3, 2011 at 11:56 am

anybody can teach me about testing of TX Ratio using variable??? Reply
4.
mkl says: January 8, 2012 at 8:31 am

very very good but more drawings are needed please for the answeres and other places. thanks
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Reply 5.
keith says: February 16, 2012 at 10:15 am

My ELCB at home trips every day when the water heater runs for some time. What is the solution to fix this problem? Reply
Jignesh.Parmar says: February 16, 2012 at 5:00 pm

Need to check Heater. Reply 6.
Sankalp says: June 25, 2012 at 3:56 pm

Why does ELCB in generator is connected to Y phase while overcurrent protection in R and B phases? Reply
7.
sanjaykumar says: July 13, 2012 at 3:56 pm

a lot of thanks sir for a nice article Reply
8.
manjunatha says: September 17, 2012 at 12:32 pm

Do you have all this articles in one book , -Manjunatha Reply
Jignesh.Parmar says: September 17, 2012 at 1:54 pm

Press BUY ELECTRICAL NOTES IN PDF in this Blog. After paying amount You will get Link for Downloading PDF file. Reply 9.
Toink says: November 14, 2012 at 3:15 am

Its possible to installing ELCB 2 pole with 2 Phase (L1 and L2) ? Reply
10.
santosh says: January 26, 2013 at 4:47 pm

I want to know the working principle of ELCB,anybody can help me? Reply
Jignesh.Parmar says: January 27, 2013 at 4:01 am

It is already explain in this Post!! Reply 11.
Muzi says: March 24, 2013 at 11:56 am

Really good information for understandind elcb and rcd
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9/7/2013
Reply 12.
Gejo Raphy says: April 11, 2013 at 4:47 am

Thanks Mr. Jignesh Reply
13.
B.S.Khan says: May 7, 2013 at 6:46 am

ELCB meant for human safety or equipment safety please explain. Reply
Jignesh.Parmar says: May 7, 2013 at 2:33 pm

Refer old post of this Blog Reply 14.
zarul ashraf says: May 21, 2013 at 2:41 pm

what the Similarity elcb and rcd. Reply
Jignesh.Parmar says: May 21, 2013 at 2:46 pm

Both give protection against Earth Fault-Leakage Current!!! Reply 15.
A.MANJUNATH says: May 24, 2013 at 4:15 am

THANKS A LOT FOR THE EXTENSIVE DETAILS Reply
16.
A.MANJUNATH says: May 24, 2013 at 4:21 am

Every time there is a heavy rain, there is a power surge in our area and and which ever equipment is ON like fan, cfl tubes gets damaged. and this has happened several times.. Local electricians say it is due to neutral and phase wire fault at main the supply line.. In this case which ELCB will help. This is a regular problem in several houses in our area Reply
17.
t.k.nayyar says: June 14, 2013 at 3:08 pm

I like this article.well explained Reply
18.
dushyant kumar says: July 8, 2013 at 12:19 pm

good explen about RCCB & ELCB Reply
19.
jay says: July 24, 2013 at 4:57 am

Does a portable generator need an ELCB? Are there ELCBs for 400Hz power?
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Reply 20.
Mohammad says: August 2, 2013 at 2:11 pm

Useful info. Thanx a lot. Reply
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About Jignesh Parmar:

Jignesh Parmar has completed his B.E(Electrical) from Gujarat University. He has more than 12 years experience in Power Transmission-Power Distribution-Electrical Energy theft detection-Electrical Maintenance-Projects (Planning-Designing-coordinationExecution). He is Presently associate with one of the leading business group as a Assistant Manager at Ahmedabad,India. He has published numbers of Technical Articles in "Electrical Mirror", "Electrical India", "Lighting India", "Industrial Electrix"(Australian Power Publications) Magazines. He is Freelancer Programmer of Advance Excel and design useful Excel base Electrical Programs as per IS,NEC,IEC,IEEE codes. He is Technical Blogger and Familiar with English, Hindi, Gujarati, French languages. He wants to Share his experience & Knowledge and help technical enthusiasts to find suitable solutions and updating themselves on various Engineering Topics.
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