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Battery charger tripping mains

Claude

By Claude
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Claude Collaborator

Claude

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Turned up at my new mooring yesterday but for some reason when I switch the charger on (sterling pro-digital) it trips the mains at the bollard. It's not overloading the mains and when I tried my backup charger (same model) it did the same thing so I'm pretty sure it's not faulty chargers - they never tripped the mains at any mooring before.

 

Does anyone have any ideas/solutions?

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Nickhlx Veteran

Nickhlx

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Wiring fault at new mooring ? It could also be a faulty breaker ( hyper- sensitive ?) Are you the first user of the mains outlet ? Is the lead from the bollard to your boat a known trusted and undamaged one ?

 

Try plugging in something else, like a light. I would suspect that the neutral and earth may be swapped somewhere between the breaker and your boat, or the outlet may be wired improperly

(Eeeek !)

 

Nick

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Nickhlx Veteran

Nickhlx

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Ours is a 6 amp and the Victron 12/3000/120 hasn't tripped that in years (ever) - it may be a "soft start" though. I would have thought that the trips used on marina bollards would (need to) take a surge though else it would be a common problem...

 

Nick

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Greylady2 Proficient

Greylady2

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Maybe adjust your amp dial on your victron inverter to match the marina's ampage.

 

We had a similar problem.

 

Knocked it down to 6amp and looked at all our appliances/gadgets. (We binned the house Vacuum Cleaner)

 

 

It's OK up to now.

post-26650-0-67467300-1467144534_thumb.jpg

Edited by Greylady2
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Alan de Enfield Veteran II

Alan de Enfield

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Maybe adjust your amp dial on your victron inverter to match the marina's ampage.

 

We had a similar problem.

 

Knocked it down to 6amp and looked at all our appliances/gadgets. (We binned the house Vacuum Cleaner)

 

 

It's OK up to now.

 

I think you will find (or you have already realised) that that 'dial' is to support a larger amperage usage for appliances when the shore supply is insufficient - ie if you are running a 2000 watt hoover (say 9 amps) and you only have a 6 amp shore supply, set the dial at 6 amps and the inverter will make up the rest (3 amps at 220v - about 60amps at 12v ) drawn from the batteries.

 

The last thing you want is to try and charge the battery using the battery as a power supply.

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Greylady2 Proficient

Greylady2

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I think you will find (or you have already realised) that that 'dial' is to support a larger amperage usage for appliances when the shore supply is insufficient - ie if you are running a 2000 watt hoover (say 9 amps) and you only have a 6 amp shore supply, set the dial at 6 amps and the inverter will make up the rest (3 amps at 220v - about 60amps at 12v ) drawn from the batteries.

 

The last thing you want is to try and charge the battery using the battery as a power supply.

Good point. Lesson was learnt sharpish.

 

The marina owner said get that hoover back on your car, we have a sterling power manager? God knows it lights up like a Christmas Tree.

 

Anyhow we only charge the 18v hoover up on shore now.

Is it the overload trip going or the Earth leakage one RCD thats tripping? Do you have any other electrical load on at the time?

BUMP FOR THE OP Edited by Greylady2
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Claude Collaborator

Claude

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Wiring fault at new mooring ? It could also be a faulty breaker ( hyper- sensitive ?) Are you the first user of the mains outlet ? Is the lead from the bollard to your boat a known trusted and undamaged one ?

 

Try plugging in something else, like a light. I would suspect that the neutral and earth may be swapped somewhere between the breaker and your boat, or the outlet may be wired improperly

(Eeeek !)

 

Nick

Sorry I should have explained that everything else on the boat including the washing machine is working fine.

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Claude Collaborator

Claude

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Is it the overload trip going or the Earth leakage one RCD thats tripping? Do you have any other electrical load on at the time?

Not sure, I'll find out today after work. Other appliances were on but I'll try it again with/without other appliances on .

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Claude Collaborator

Claude

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UPDATE: Other unearthed appliances, lamps, tv, etc, are working fine. I will check to see exactly what's tripping on the bollard tomorrow.

 

I've got a feeling this might have something to do with the mains plugs my battery chargers have. They have integral switches with internal neon lights. Might these be affecting something? Just a hunch.

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Claude Collaborator

Claude

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Just tried changing one of the plugs on a charger but it still trips the mains so that's not it. Couldn't really find another earthed appliance, but I'm fairly sure the immersion heater is earthed and that works ok.

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Claude Collaborator

Claude

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I've just connected one of the chargers direct to the bollard bypassing and eliminating anything else on the boat but it still trips the bollard. That indicates to my completely inexpert mind that the breaker is too sensitive and the equipment is fine. The rest of the boat doesn't trip the mains and both chargers can't have suddenly developed faults at the same time surely?

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Nickhlx Veteran

Nickhlx

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I don't know which breaker is which on the bollard, but the one that's tripping is labelled RC225/030 25A. The other one that's not tripping is labelled MC116 C16.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


That's a Residual Current ( earth leakage) breaker which is a 30 mA type and capable of passing up to 25 amps.


The one that's not tripping is a circuit breaker, which is like a resettable fuse, and is a 16 Amp type. Shoreline breakers are usually 6 amp or 16 amp, depending on the cable they are wired with and the capability of the supply.


So the issues are that there is either an earth leakage which is tripping it or it may be faulty and tripping far "earlier" than it should ( which is unlikely, although possible). Can you connect, using the same cable, into another bollard supply to see if the same happens there ? If it does, then the problem is definitely "downwind" of the bollard. Its then a matter of substitution of parts to see what is causing the issue.


Nick

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Nickhlx Veteran

Nickhlx

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I have just seen / read you post 21.

 

I wonder if the chargers have their earth and neutrals connected within the charger ? I seem to remember some have a removeable link, although not sure why. Maybe they have a small bleed resistance between them that this RCD on the bollard is too sensitive to ignore ?

 

Anyway it does seem to have been narrowed down to the chargers ( or an over sensitive RCD on the bollard) - perhaps a call to the manufacturer / supplier ?

 

Nick

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BruceinSanity Influencer

BruceinSanityDonate to Canal World

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There have been problems with ELCBs here at Mercia getting tired and tripping prematurely. The spring that holds the breaker in weakens so that less than 32mA is needed to trip it. Are there other boats sharing the bollard? Four boats on one bollard means that they only have to have 8mA leakage each to trip the ELCB.

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