Whilst out and about quoting jobs I’m quite surprised at the amount of houses and businesses that don’t have safety switches fitted. Safety switches (or RCD’s, RCBO’s, ELCB’s) are a simple low cost solution to protect both persons and property from coming in to contact with dangerous voltages should a fault occur to the installation.

    It’s easy to forget that our everyday appliances can cause us harm. Faulty wiring, faulty appliances or accidents with electricity can be fatal. When you get an electric shock, electricity usually flows through your body to earth. It can flow through your heart, interfering with the electric impulses which keep it beating, causing the heart to stop.  A safety switch monitors the flow of electricity through a circuit, detects a problem as soon as the current

leaves the circuit, and turns the power off within 0.03 of a second. That’s quick enough to help save your life, and help prevent costly fires or damage to your property.

    The picture above shows a newer style switchboard loaded with 6x Safety Switches, 4 for the power circuits and 2 for the lights. The advantage of having each circuit on its own safety switch is that it reduces nuisance tripping while allowing different parts of the house to remain on if one circuit has a fault. A tell tale sign of a Safety Switch is a test button located on the face of the unit.

    The picture above shows an old style switchboard that has ceramic fuse bases with plug in circuit breakers. These are definitely not Safety Switches, they are just plug in modules that replace the old fuse wire carriers.

    Don’t forget to test your safety switch each month. it’s as simple as pushing the little test button on the face. if the switch goes off then it’s working, however if the switch does not go off call your electrician to come and replace the unit as soon as possible. The picture below shows a typical safety switch test button.