Isolator Main Breaker Question

[MJCM]

This is our setup.

Now the problem was, that the 63A would trip often, turn on a pump, and the 63A would trip.

Our Sparkey, said that the 63A is too soft "ohn".

The problem was solved by buying a 63A from Siemens. The original 63A was from the Haco brand.

Any thoughts?

 

TiA

Edit: Forgot. This house is only less then 1 year old.

[Crossy]

How big is the pump??

 

What "curve" was the first unit? If it was "B" then the startup surge from your pump may have tripped it. That said I've not seen a B curve unit here; C curve seems to be the standard.

 

It's always possible that the Haco one was actually faulty.

 

In our time BS (Before Solar) we never managed to trip our 63A incomer even with Madam's 3HP irrigation and 2HP lift pumps running.

[MJCM]

Thx DC.

No idea about the curve, but the pump is just a 450W Hitachi Inverter House pump.

 

Our first thought was that Ants got in but Sparky checked, on top of the house etc etc and no ants found in the wiring or the pumps.

My Guess is that the Haco was faulty, as well, because after changing it for the Siemens no issues at all. *Better Quality maybe also???*

We have the same Haco in our own house as incoming and no issues *knock on wood* just yet.

 

I have ordered a 63A ABB just in case for our own House

[Muhendis]

That picture doesn't look right.

In the event of a lightning strike nearby, The resulting EMP (electromagnetic pulse) would trip the 20A thingy but maybe not the 63A one which would result in the EMP having fun around the house wiring.

Maybe the drawing is not quite right?

[bearded_bluto]

On 1/7/2025 at 10:42 PM, MJCM said:

Our Sparkey, said that the 63A is too soft "ohn".

The problem was solved by buying a 63A from Siemens. The original 63A was from the Haco brand.

Any thoughts?

 

TiA

Edit: Forgot. This house is only less then 1 year old.

That is a big pump if it eats ~14,000 watts on single phase. Was it a rcbo type breaker? Maybe there is a small fault in the motor? Edit: Nevermind, just read rest of thread, 450 watt motor...

[Crossy]

5 hours ago, Muhendis said:

That picture doesn't look right.

In the event of a lightning strike nearby, The resulting EMP (electromagnetic pulse) would trip the 20A thingy but maybe not the 63A one which would result in the EMP having fun around the house wiring.

Maybe the drawing is not quite right?

 

Nah, the MCB is waaaaay too slow to trip on the EMP, it won't even notice.

 

MCB several milliseconds to think about operating, lightning pulse sub microsecond.

 

[carlyai]

Muhendis you had me a bit worried then cause mine is the same.

What MJCM and I haven't done (one of them roundtuits) is install another MOV (metal oxide varister) on the neutral as well.

Me thinks that a near lightning strike will raise the earth and neutral voltage for a poofdeenth of a second as well.

I think I remember seeing a Crossy home cct. and his incoming neutral has a MOV as well

 

[MJCM]

We have this same setup in three houses with the first build is well over 7 years old and never had an issue with this same setup.

The Distribution board consists of all Schneider components with RCBO's

 

Ps: The stickers need work 55555555555

[carlyai]

5 hours ago, MJCM said:

We have this same setup in three houses with the first build is well over 7 years old and never had an issue with this same setup.

The Distribution board consists of all Schneider components with RCBO's

 

Ps: The stickers need work 55555555555

You may never have a problem from lighning strikes, but then one day you do. I think best to install a MOV on the neutral as well. If that's what you mean.

[MJCM]

I got this drawing from someone on the board, and I will ask his advice on this.

My knowledge doesn't extend that far.

Thx

Edit: If there are lightning strikes in the area, I disconnect everything and lower all MCB's just in case.

[carlyai]

3 minutes ago, MJCM said:

I got this drawing from someone on the board, and I will ask his advice on this.

My knowledge doesn't extend that far.

Thx

The only reason I mentioned it is I'm fairly sure a home circuit I saw from  Crossy had a MOV on the neutral as well.

I'll have a look for the pic. 🙂