Leakage Current Tripping can be a nuisance - B-Stop

In many countires  including Australia the use of residual current devices provides protection to humans by ensuring that current that is passed from the Active conductor to Earth is detected and if the level is high enough, trips the breaker feeding the circuit.  This protection is extremely important for the protection of life and equipment as any current being delivered to a device should be the same level as the current returning from that same device.  If that is not the case some current is "leaking".   That leakage current could be passing through a human body.   If the current level is high enough it has the potential to kill so the circuit should be disconnected until the source of the leakage current can be identified and corrected.

In a house or factory, the curcuits can be segregated and many devices which have small amounts of leakage current can have their own RCD.   That way the accumulation of small leakage currents can be divided across several RCDs.  this keeps the system safe but provides the security and safety deemed necessary for a compliant installation.

In a boat, that luxery may not be available as all circuits may be fed from one breaker on the dock.   In this case segregation of circuits is not possible as they are all fed from the single dock RCD.   

It is often assumed that for leakage current to trip an RCD, a fault must exist but this is not necessarily true.     

In many cases the solution to the rcd tripping problem is surprisingly simple and relates to the nature of the accumulated leakage currents developed on a boat.      This section does not relate to a Sieltec Product but rather a product from another supplier.   The product  can be provided by Sieltec if required and is a simple yet effective way to handle nuisance tripping.    The theoretical basis for the correction of typical nuisance tripping currents is very simple and the practical application of the device described in the white paper is  amazingly effective.   Please refer to the white paper to understand the operation of the device in much more detail.