electrical fuse box

[booboomojo]

I recently bought a glass fusing kiln so i could work from home making jewellery.

Every time i turn the kiln on it fuses the electrics of the whole house!! In the instructions it says that if this happens it is probably due to a 30ma R.C.D being in the fuse box and it needs to be upped to a 100ma R.C.D.

My question is can i or partner do this ourselves or should i contact an electrician, both quite capable of basic diy etc?? If i could do it how would i go about it?? If had to get an electrician in what would be the cost??

Any help in this would be great as got a cool kiln going to waste in the spare room and fed up of a friend of a friend who is an electrician loosing me down.

[stormin]

The current legal position is that virtually any electrical work must be carried out by a qualified electrician. What you appear to have does not a quick fix option but will definitely require the services of a qualified professional.

[Buenchico]

Your question is rather confusing. Does your house have an actual fuse box (i.e. you have to replace either a fuse wire or a cartridge fuse when the circuit is overloaded) or does it have miniature circuit breakers (i.e. you just need to reset a switch after an overload).

If the former is true, it's unlikely that there's a resisidual current device (with any rating) installed in the circuit anyway, so you won't be able to replace what doesn't exist!

If the latter is true then it's likely that the box which contains the miniature circuit breakers will also contain a residual current device. If this is the case and it's only the RCD which 'trips' when you attempt to use the kiln, then replacing it with a higher rating unit is simply a matter of unplugging the old unit and plugging in the new one. (RCDs can be purchased from B&Q or any decent electrical outlet).

RCDs can trip when there is a brief current surge but fuses and MCBs only blow/trip when there is a sustained overload. If it really is the RCD which is causing the problem then it will be simple to fix (but I'd still advise getting an electrician to look at it). If it's a fuse or MCB which is tripping/blowing, there could be a fault with the wiring of the kiln or with the house wiring. (In which case you most definitely need to consult an electrician).

Chris

[jake-the-peg]

Stormin is wrong ( and so are many others) to say that virtually any electrical work must be carried out by electricians.

The Part P regulations mean that electrical work must be carried out by qualified people in certain areas.

These areas are principally where it may come into contact with water, Bathrooms, kitchens outside the house etc.

So for example you may not add extra sockets to the ring in your kitchen but you can in your lounge.

There's a third option to what Buenchico says you could have an old fuse box with a seperate RCD. Unless it's a micro-rcd I'd get an electrician in this is not a standard household appliance and I'd guess draws an awful lot of (potentially dangerous) power

[buildersmate]

Not sure the above is right. Stormin - householders can do some limited electrical work on their systems - for example, putting spurs onto existing ring mains and modifying lighting rings, but not in kitchens or bathrooms. You should not be changing a 30mA RCD for a higher rated one without consulting a qualified electrician. RCDs detect for an unacceptably high leakage current between live and earth and for a domestic system that includes protecting sockets that might be used for portable equipment outside (by use of an extension lead out of the window/door) from an unacceptable risk of fatal shock. You'd be degrading this element of the system by changing the main RCD at the Consumer Unit.

It is possible that normal insulation resistance currents and stray capacitance leakage currents are driving the total leakage above 30mA and that there is not a fault in the device. It may be possible to upgrade the circuit for this device to 100mA only using a device called an RCCD (Residual Current Circuit Breaker) installed into the CU. You must consult an electrician.

[buildersmate]

(Jake the Pegs advice was posted during construction of the above answer.)