Message Forums

My EHU has a 10 amp mcb fitted and I have noticed a lot of sites supply is 16 amp, which means that I will be missing out on 6 amps worth of supply that would enable the use of items at the same time.  Now for the question, is it just a case of fitting a 16 amp mcb in to the unit to replace the 10 amp one ? Obviously checking it is of similar spec.  Are they all the same size physically or could I have issues fitting it in the unit ?

Thanks

Pete.

Hi Pete,electrical units are designed with a few factors taken into account and upgrading to a 16amp breaker may not be adviseable as this may have adverse affects on your main rcd breaker under fault conditions.boring stuff realy but you could end up with an electrical fire.

Dave

Thanks for the replies, on the rear of the unit it does say 16 amp maximum, so I pressume that it could actually handle that.  Dave could you put it into laymans terms how it may cause problems please, the RCD is rated at 25amp and they are both just mounted on a slide bar.

Thanks

Pete.

Hi Pete,sorry if it sounds confusing it's all to do with electrical calculations,but breakers are all rated diferently with current rating and type letters or numbers and is to do with how fast they will trip off under fault conditions to protect the cable and any switches which are connetected inline before them.

If you were to get a fault the current will be quite high for a very short period untill the breaker trips and may be greater than the main siwtch can handle.

unfortunatley i lost my regulations book which could tell me if it was ok to change.

If you know an electrician with one ask him just to check for you,as it will probably be ok. They will need the Current rating of the main switch and the cable size of your leed and the type number of the new 16amp breaker. C type would probably be ok.

Hope this helps Dave

Thanks Dave, had a good read about it now, as far as I can see there is no problem switching the breaker, also bearing in mind that I would never use it to the limits anyway, but I could still utilise a few extra amps  :)

Pete.