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Borehole tripping Geyser earth leakage


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Posted

Hi,

Long shot but does anyone know why is it that when I change my water supply over to borehole,the earth leakage trips?

I put the geyser breaker down and everything works fine. (my geyser doesn't like borehole water 😢)

On municipal supply everything works fine no issues.

14 answers to this question

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Posted

My first suggestion would be to look for an earth fixed on your water pipes, especially between the hot water pipes and cold water inlet. I would guess that when you switch to the borehole your borehole side bypass that earthing that you have on the other side. Is the one metal and the other one plastic pipes?

Most installations have an earth fixture on the water pipes (sometimes you find light tingle when you take a shower in some houses, and this earthing solves that)

1746049121_20200826_134112(2).jpg.a73fc706319ae4c559aaeaaf61e9a4ed.jpg

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Quwatush Shams (Suly) said:

my geyser doesn't like borehole water

Well this reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago. Someone was complaining that whenever they took a shower, the taps would have a slight tingle to them. Turns out the element inside the water had completely corroded through and the exposed heating wire itself was in direct contact with the water.

Now distilled water has low conductivity (18MΩ over a centimeter, according to google), and seawater is a 1000 times better (18kΩ over a centimeter), and then there is a whole sliding scale in the middle. So it is entirely possible that with enough minerals in the water the leakage could be higher.

So what you need to do is either 1) an insulation test, or 2) a leakage test.

For the 1st option you need an insulation tester, something that can put 500V or 1000V across the appliance and test if there is leakage. You'd then put one terminal on the metal body of the geyser, and the other on the live wire (when cold, so the thermostat is closed), and measure the resistance. You want above 1MΩ. Since insulation testers are usually equipment you don't own if you are not an electrician, you will probably have to ask someone to do it.

The 2nd option can be done with a clamp meter. Put the clamp meter around both the live and neutral conductors (but not the earth) so that it reads the difference between the two (the opposing current flows cancel and you see only the difference). If this is more than few milliamps, you probably have a leakage. Earth leakages start to trip after 15mA, but with an appliance like this you'd expect to see almost no leakage, so even 5mA would be concerning.

Fixing it would probably consist of draining the tank and replacing the element.

Edited by plonkster
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Posted
4 hours ago, Quwatush Shams (Suly) said:

Long shot but does anyone know why is it that when I change my water supply over to borehole,the earth leakage trips?

When you are on municipal supply, do you use the borehole for something else?

And can you share how you do the changeover, do you physically need to connect/disconnect something.. 

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Posted
4 hours ago, Louisvdw said:

Is the one metal and the other one plastic pipes?

Sort of the supply is plastic and the house copper/galvinised

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Posted
7 minutes ago, Jaco de Jongh said:

When you are on municipal supply, do you use the borehole for something else?

Manually done close municipal supply and open borehole

FYI borehole and booster on its own inverter

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Posted
4 hours ago, Louisvdw said:

sometimes you find light tingle

funny enough i tried that holding the pipe waiting for a shock or something

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Posted

@plonkster thank you but why does it not trip at all on municipal feed?

Makes no sense

Replaced the float switch in the tank also thought the old one might be leaking or something

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Posted
1 hour ago, Quwatush Shams (Suly) said:

@plonkster thank you but why does it not trip at all on municipal feed?

I assumed you mean municipal WATER feed, and that is why I'm thinking the borehole water may have a higher mineral content, and is therefore more conductive. Switching to municipal water lowers the leakage to earth, because the water is "cleaner" 🙂

 

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Posted
57 minutes ago, Shockin said:

Sounds like  you  have a slight short in borehole pump

Trips earthleakage on non-essentials side not essentials/inverter side

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