What is the current leakage and how to protect themselves from this

Surely you have heard this phrase as "leakage current". And, it would seem, well, that such. Well leaking current and that in this terrible, this is not a short-circuit. In fact, such a judgment is plainly wrong. In this article I will tell you what the "current drain" than it is so dangerous and how to defend against it.

What is the current leakage

So, first let's clarify what kind of a process. Thus, the "leakage current" - a current flow by not intended to be that way. At the same time as the flow circuit can be: the housing, damp walls, heating pipes and the like, and the person can become a part of this chain. And if the leakage current flowing is large enough, it can cause irreparable damage to health.

That's why a leak current need time to identify and eliminate the causes that created it.

Why leakage current occurs

So, now let us learn about the main causes of leakage current. We all know that the wires have a protective insulation. Insulation task - to protect people from electric shock when you touch the power supply wires.

But even the new appliance with good insulation will still have a small leakage current, as the insulation is not perfect and microcracks has not been canceled.

A phenomenon such as banal insulation aging due to prolonged operation, overheating during significant loads and the most banal accidental damage during repair work are the main causes of the current leakage.

But as long as the value of this efflux does not exceed the value of 10 mA, it is considered completely safe.

A real threat to human health and life carries the leakage current of 30 mA.

Characteristic signs of leakage

Signs indicating that the presence of leakage currents, the following points are in a house or apartment:

Touching the product's enclosure wall, pipe, you feel a slight tingling sensation, that is, leakage currents in your network.

Another factor pointing to what appeared in your wiring leakage current is increased electricity consumption. Modern metering devices can sense even the minimum electricity consumption.

How to identify a damaged appliance

Means professional measuring the resistance of the insulating layer is device - megger. But I strongly doubt that it is in every house, so to describe the measurement process, I'm not using megger (familiar with the algorithm Megger insulation test can be this article).

Much more often in the house you can find a meter or indicator.

But with the help of them and find a damaged appliance.

Let's use a multimeter to check the insulation, such as a washing machine.

Important. Check the resistance using a multimeter is performed only on fully disconnected from the network appliance.

To do this, take a multimeter, translate control to 20 megohms. A touch probe pin plug, and the second metallic part of the washing machine, such as a drum.

In this case, if the display you will see a "1", the isolation of the product is quite normal, the whiter the low insulation value you will see on the screen, the larger the leakage current will be in the unit under test.

If you have only an indicator, the test will look like this:

You turn the device to the network and touch a sting to the metal casing. In this case, if the indicator lights up at least a little, the leakage current is present. So uncomplicated way you can check and plumbing and walls.

How to find a leak posting

Find the site of injury in the hidden wiring is much more difficult, and in this case neither the meter nor the more light will not help you. In this case you need to call a specialist.

How to protect itself against leakage

Wide protection option is to install a distribution box or RCD RCBOs (Emergency circuit breakers). These devices are specifically designed to disable the damaged area in the event of a dangerous leakage current.

Important. Correct operation of the device is guaranteed in three-wire network. That is, where in addition to the phase and zero is present zamelyayuschy wire.

conclusion

That's all I wanted to tell you about the leakage currents and how to protect against them. If the article was helpful to you, you will appreciate it Like. Thank you for your attention!