Thanks Fred, here's the exact unit I've tried to install in my fuse box. They're easily available in any electrical supplies store. It just seems the wiring techniques they use here make them unusable.
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I bought 2 because in Australia it's now the standard to have 2 in a single house. I think the trend is going towards having every MCB replaced with a dual function RCCB/MCB but I think that's pretty expensive at the moment. I was going to have one on each floor of the house so that if they tripped it would be easier to work out where the problem was. So basically there's one RCCB to cover all the circuits on the first floor and another to cover all the circuits on the second floor. Every individual circuit has it's own MCB.
Fred2 wroteUnless you have wired the house to a Neutral, multi earth system as in Australia you will have problems.
Until now, I thought they'd done a pretty good job, and they've definitely used a standard Live, Neutral, Earth system. Although, there's only one grounding rod. I bought a proper 8 foot long, copper plated rod, so I am confident it's working.
I can't say for certain, but I doubt there's any loose wires or any short circuits. It's my guess that they've done the junctions differently to what a western electrician would do and this has caused a lot of leakage, which generally doesn't cause problems if you're not using RCCBs. I remember having a look at a few junctions and I was surprised that it's just wires twisted together and wrapped in black electrical tape. They were neatly done, but it didn't look very modern. However, I don't know what a western junction box actually looks like, so I couldn't complain.
Fred2 wroteIf your RCCB gives a big bang when you set it, its a short between Positive & neutral or earth. If it just pops out with no noise it is a short between neutral & earth.
It just instantly flips itself off. There's no bang or burning smell. The reason I don't think it's a short or a loose wire is that you can plug in a lamp and it doesn't trip the RCCB (or the MCB) but as soon as you plug in anything bigger like a TV or power tool, it trips. With these RCCBs, you've got 30mA of leakage before the RCCB will trip, my guess is that the wiring itself is leaking ~80% of that and then the natural leakage of any mid to large sized appliance is tipping it over the limit. I could probably buy a 100mA RCCB but apparently this isn't good enough to save your life in case of electrocution.
Fred2 wroteDo not waste your time fitting a ELCB you will have the same problem.
Is this because all the leakage is going to ground via the earth wire? I'm still not certain where all this leakage is actually going.
