GreenBrook has relaunched its market leading brand of Powerbreaker RCDs by increasing the range to offer the most comprehensive selection of RCD safety products on the market.
An informative new brochure detailing the range entitled “A Guide to Electrical Safety” is available now, along with a new website solely dedicated to this impressive range (please see www.powerbreaker.co.uk).
PowerBreaker were the first to create the RCD back in 1975. Residual Current Devices are electrical devices which when incorporated into an electrical installation, will provide the highest degree of protection against the risks of electrocution and fire caused by electrical earth faults.
The 17th and 18th Edition of Building Regulations recommends the use of RCD for sockets as well as for inside consumer units, but, despite this recommendation – there are still approximately 13 million homes in the UK that have no RCD protection at all. Approximately 10% of all fires are caused by electrical faults and many of these could be prevented by using RCDs.
RCDs are available in different variants, namely Passive or Active, and can be used for different applications. Many people are unaware of the differences between these two products and do not understand where best to use what!
For Passive RCDs a typical application would be a refrigerator or freezer that would return to their regular mode of operation as soon as the power supply resumes normal operation. Passive RCDs are also useful to use for sockets in hard to reach places where having to gain access to re-set an RCD would be tricky, however where protection is still required.
An active RCD is better used for electrical equipment such as hedge trimmers or power tools where unexpected restarting of the equipment could present a danger to the user in a power cut situation.
You will also see PowerBreaker offer both a 30mA RCD as standard plus a 10mA option.
PowerBreaker 10mA RCDs are the latest products to hit the market and are the super sensitive products. These RCDs trip earlier as they are more sensitive to a fault current flowing, breaking the circuit before the trip occurs further upstream in the consumer unit – often than cutting out other faultless items.
These RCDs have been deemed safer for use in areas with young children, such as nurseries and schools but also for use in places with more vulnerable people like hospitals or old people’s homes where a chance of electric shock could be fatal. All public access areas would be advised to use 10mA as all types of people can pass through these areas.
So we see that the degree of risk depends not only on current and time but if the victim is a child or a person in poor health, the effects can be more serious so the need for RCD protection is even greater.
PowerBreaker 10mA RCDs are super sensitive and are ideal for use in hospitals and nurseries or areas where you would find vulnerable people.
The PowerBreaker 30mA RCDs trip at least 10 milliseconds faster than the BSEN standards require.
PowerBreaker socket RCDs also offer MFBL (make first break last) technology, which is critical to avoid upstream RCD nuisance tripping at the consumer unit.
PowerBreaker – anything else is a compromise…
