UFH Electric - Instant trip

[bernardgreen]

 

[DrizzyDanny]

I think you have a neutral - earth fault.

The neutral with no load is same voltage as earth, so if there is a low resistance between the two, nothing will trip, as no imbalance. But as the load increases the voltage between earth and neutral also increases, not by much, but enough to cause current to flow.

We use this View attachment 306017 meter to test, and it puts 500 volt between the wires to be tested, it can destroy electronics, so care is required in its use, and the cheapest will cost around £35, it is always used when laying electric under floor heating, so the person laying it should have one.

I have seen it where a bit of damp toast in a toaster has caused a RCD to trip when kettle is used, as often we don't switch the neutral.

Electrician suspected something similar, a faulty earth somewhere.

Turns out the B32 was overloaded, whoever had messed with it prior to me moving in had moved a wire across and put it in a random one instead of matching it

Probably replaced the UFH for no reason but at least I have peace of mind once the floor goes down over it, touch wood, there wont be any issues

Thanks for everyone who tried to help, appreciate it

 

[ericmark]

I fitted UFH in my mothers wet room, idea was good, it would dry the floor reducing the chance of slipping, and also heat the wet room, it was a good job we also fitted a heated towel rail, as max floor temperature of 27°C was not enough to maintain the temperature of the room at 20°C when the required extractor fan was running drawing air in from the hall at around 17-18°C.

It also did not dry the sculptured tiles we had selected to increase grip, so it was rarely used. The carer just had to mop the floor when finished.

My sister had sang the praises of UFH before it was fitted, but I think they had heat recovery units, today we seem to be using the just in time approach, so we only turn on the heating in each room just enough time before we use the room for it to be warm enough to use. So the time to heat the room is critical. Inferred is likely the fastest, but hard to control, next is the fan assisted radiator, which can also be used for cooling, but expensive to install, then the normal radiator, but you want a large surface area but a low mass, so it heats up can cools down faster, the two forms of heating which do not seem to make sense is the storage radiator and UFH unless as in an old peoples home heating required 24/7.

I remember fitting my mothers, and first job was band jacking out the floor to fit the slabs of insulation material, lucky had to do it anyway to fit the drains, but even with the heating not on, the floor was so much warmer once the insulation was fitted.

As a lad I often wondered why we stopped fitting UFH, I looked at the Hypocaust in Chester and it seemed so good, so why did we stop, now I know.