I beg your pardon. Those breakers I described are overcurrent breakers. The ones you refer to are RCDs (Residual Current Devices), or ELCBs (Earth Leakage Circuit Breakers), or RCCBs (Residual Current Circuit Breakers) Regards, Kevin ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Blain" To: "pic microcontroller discussion list" Sent: Monday, March 19, 2001 9:41 AM Subject: Re: [OT]: Four-wire electric distribution system > Hey! We do this in the UK too! > > Actually, it varies, depenting on where the system is, but the neutral is > bonded to earth at the local substation, and then in most cases, just phase > and neutral arrive at the subscribers premises, and the earth is taken from > the water pipes, etc. > > In some cases, the phase and neutral come down a metal pipe, which will > therefore be passing through earth in order to get to the subscribers > premises. > > If you have problem with noisy earth, try to improve your bond to the > earth. Some long poles sunk into good soil, and a nice thick piece of cable > to the earth block ought to help. > > Regards, Kevin > > P.S. > > automatic breakers == MCBs (miniature circuit breakers) > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Attila Muhi" > To: > Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2001 11:26 AM > Subject: [OT]: Four-wire electric distribution system > > > Hi, > > In Sweden we have a low-budget electric distribution system using only four > wires, with a common wire for both neutral and protective ground. We split > the neutral and protective ground in the fuse-box in our houses. That > results in a lot of parasit current in the protective ground, especially > when people, not necessarily in the same building, use powerful single-phase > loads. > > My question is: > > Is Sweden the only country in Europe that don't use 5-wire transmission > system, with separate ground and neutral wires ? I do work a lot with > clearing those currents, especially for electrosensitive people, and I get > very fed up with this ! Also, those automatic breakers (don't know the > english word) that compare the current between the three phases and neutral, > and triggers if there's a difference, keep trigging from those parasite > currents ! > > Pooh ! > > Attila Muhi - SM4RAN > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: > [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads > > > > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics