Anyone knows why my power trips even at the slightest lightning strike?

During one normal thunderstorm, it can trip for up to 5-10 times. My neighbour's power doesn't get tripped, while mine does.

Anyone can troubleshoot what component in the electrical system is faulty? It's very annoying when it trips when I'm doing something important on the computer. I want to fix this frequent tripping problem, I don't want to buy a UPS.

Thanks.

http://hubpages.com/hub/importance-of-power-surge-protection

better late then never.. you dont wanna end up like this poor guy

http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...&#entry31436601

I think you misunderstood my problem, I strongly believe that there is a problem with the electrical system, causing the frequent power trips. Of course, I can just call an electrician over to take a look at it, but he has come here quite often and he did not mention anything about anything being faulty. So, I just want to get your thoughts on what could be wrong with the electrical system. As I've mentioned before, my neighbour's power doesn't trip when mine trips.

If I wanted to, I could go out and buy a UPS right now, but I want to get to the root of the problem. Buying a UPS, but still facing the frequent power trips is annoying. That is why I want to troubleshoot what is wrong with the electrical system first.

i see

if that case most probably its overloaded? or the wire is already old @ rotten or something?

your elcb is very sensitive, but good to know they are working fine compare to those doesn't trip at all, its better safe than sorry.
you can read more at here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_leakage_circuit_breaker

Yes yr circuit breaker is too sensitive. you can replace the elcb, it wont cost much. my house ELCB trips when very strong lightning but not all the time. Get a reliable brand, its very important hardware in yr home electrical system.

No harm if u spend more the get a good one.

Thanks for the replies guys

Do you think that it's wise to ask my electrician to reduce the sensitivity?

U cant reduce the sensitivity but the replace the ELCB to a better reliable brand.

Ask him to also check your earth wires if all are good.

Ok, I guess I'll look around for a new ELCB then, thanks guys.

Get a good brand. If you want some suggestion i can help.

i don't think can reduce the sensitivity, but can change to new one.

yeah thats what i told to him earlier

in my old house even the slightest lighting makes the power trip.

My house is the only house in 16 acres and is on a hill so i guess its normal for it to trip at slightest lighting. I asked my electrical technician and he said that its Normal for it to trip often during lighting.

Does it trip a lot lastime? or just recently tripping a lot?

This is because when the lightning hits the ground (open area) it feeds back to your copper grounding rods which is connected to your ELCB and therefore giving u a trip.

I've asked an electrician, but he says it's normal. I don't believe him, because when I look out the window, the neighbours lights are all on. And it happens way too often. Half them time we hear thunder, the lights will go off. It happens even when the lightning is more than 1km away. We're reduced to waiting for the thunderstorm to pass. There's no point flipping the switch on the ELCB because it will simply trip again.

rattan, so what is a good brand? which shop should we go to if we're around the KL area.

Hi , i have same problem with you which my house power trip more than few time during normal thunderstorm. Just want to know you have solved this problem already?

hmm was searching for solution to this problem..and found this thread..i have the exact same problem..but only for 1 circuit in my house...even if the thunderstorm is miles away, it will trip...annoying cos my fridge and computer is on this circuit.

Will try to get electrician to change to a better ELCB

Just wondering if anybody has found permanent solutions to this problem of simple lightning strikes causing the ELCB to trip ?

That is actually good u know, having a sensitive ELCB, that will protect your household electrical appliances from getting fried (including your precious PC).
Still remember my neighbor ELCB are not sensitive, as a result 1 lightning took out almost all of their electrical appliances.

http://electrical-engineering-portal.com/w...rent-device-rcd

Hi Boon,... if it is too sensitive, I regard it as an overkill. It will not be protecting our equipment against overcurrent conditions and voltage surges anymore, it will instead contribute two undesired effects, namely :-

1) Unreasonably tripping the mains supply and causing us inconvenience to go reset it at the DB position.
2) Compromising certain functions oi the house when the trip occurs unnecessarily, eg spoiling food in the fridge, removing CCTV Security, etc,....

Hence, I believe it is more preferred to have an ELCB that trips ONLY upon ACTUAL 'danger' conditions, and not on all possibly 'danger' conditions.

Technically, why does a good earth need to be in-place in order for nuisance trips not to take place ?

Installing a better elcb/rccb which can eliminate more nuisance tripping should help. Theres brands like Maxguard which have higher sensitivity (vs normal elcb) but better protection against nuisance tripping during lightning storms. I've got one but never got around to installing it yet.

ELCBs or as I know them, measure voltage referenced to ground. A bad ground raises what we call the "touch potential". These types of devices don't do well during lightning storms.

The easiest way to take away nuisance trips is to upgrade to an RCBO/RCD, which uses differential current sensing. For normal consumer goods 30mA trip current is fine (because any more than that and it can introduce fibrillation in the human body), for "leaky" devices like ovens and fridges a simple MCCB is fine.

My recommendations are the Siemens 5SU1 and the 5SY series for most uses. They're pricey but work very well. If you need a surge protector Weidmuller's DIN mounted VPU series are a good bet.

Hey, thanks for this info, I'm having the exact problem as OP and looking for a solution.

Based on what I see from my ELCB, it's a Hager CF463B, which should be this http://www.kvc.com.my/Store/ProductView?pr...goryId=0&page=1 4P 63A 300mA LOW SENSITIVITY ELCB. I'm assuming the trip current for mine is 300mA.

I found the Siemens 5SU1 you recommended, here if anyone is interested http://my.rs-online.com/web/p/rcbos/7721199/ . though I don't think there's enough room to mount a surge protector in my power box.

Hager CF463B rated current is 63A
Siemens 5SU1 rated current is 32A

Will this be a problem?

Any experts here can advise .
This is in relation to RCCB tripping when there is lightning far away .


how do you measure the leakage current in your house . ( on a normal sunny day .

And
what is the best way to protect your pc and unifi equipment from lightning surge or strikes .

This post has been edited by tien171: Oct 12 2019, 06:10 PM

youtube have your answer. house earthing problem.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer...trip+bila+kilat

thanks ...
did some research online .
there are a few probable causes .

1. earth grounding resistance should be 10 ohms and below , as in above video.
2. some where in the house be it the wiring internal and external , plugs , electric appliance is leaking current to ground. if it exceed the rccb rated limit it trips.
lightning cause a surge on the supply and the leakage also increase .

for point 2 . if you tryin to isolate this issue , just before a storm , unplug all plug points to see if any cause the trip.

the next trouble process is to check which internal wire loop cause the trip

when you see lightning and rain coming
1. if you have 16 MCB on your DPoint, Turn of ALL manually . Observe a few rounds.

if still have issues come back here for advise .
we try to do the simple easy task first to identify where the problem is .




This post has been edited by tien171: Oct 20 2019, 02:32 PM

Change the MCB, use Hager as example.

To add on this, you can add on an extra measure by installing a surge protection device (SPD) on your circuit breaker. Have to replace the SPD every few years.

MY house has many external points in the garden, backyard, rooftop garden, etc,... which are exposed to the weather. I have isolated all these points first right when I hear distant thunder. The self-tripping has been reduced since.

Then I need to isolate which loop the culprit is and work on that loop.

Start by working on your external points/loops first.

right ! if you get a direct hit on your roof . but

Lightning can get in your house via many ways

power gate
garden lights
Astro dish
TV antenna on roof
telecom fix line phone , streamyx line
Mains power line .

So you need install some form of protection for your Devices . those expensive ones.

1. an easy NO cost way is to UNplug the devices from the mains .



This post has been edited by tien171: Oct 20 2019, 02:42 PM

Unfortunately too much speculation has created conclusions. Some misinformation noted and corrected.

One, earth ground has no relationship to how an ELCD, RDC works. That is completely about what safety ground does. Unfortunately some mistakenly call that earth ground. Safety ground means a fault to any equipment results in a tripped circuit breaker. So that humans are protected from shocks. That receptacle's safety ground cannot connect to earth ground. It must connect to a bus bar in the main breaker box. Otherwise it may not provide sufficient human protection. And so the two ground (even if interconnected elsewhere) are completely different - have different purposes.

Second, ELCD, etc detect when an incoming current is different from an outgoing current. That means some current must be going elsewhere; maybe harmfully through a human. So the ELCD/RCD cuts off electricity. It does not need any safety ground or earth ground to function / protect / be effective.

Third, ELCD/RCD is not tripped by a microseconds current from something like lightning. A fault current takes milliseconds. But that much longer current can be created by a 'follow-through' current. This is AC current s flowing because a microsecond transient has made other and temporary connections (ie plasma or arcs).

Tripping is not created by lightning. But what lightning created and must never create causes an ELCD/RCD to trip. Solution was always this simple. Do not give a lightning current any reason to be inside. Otherwise all appliances are at risk.

That current is inside because it found better paths to earth (sometimes destructively) via appliances. If that current connects to earth BEFORE entering, then nothing inside is conducting that microsecond current. No microsecond current creating a milliseconds follow-through current means no nuisance tripping.

Nuisance tripping is a misnomer. Since the problem is really crated by intentionally not earthing transients to earth ground (not safety ground) and BEFORE it can enter.

Four, an effective solution means every incoming wire must connect low impedance (ie less than 3 meters) to earth at the service entrance. TV cable and satellite dish would make that connection only with a hardwire. AC electric and phone wires must make that low impedance (ie less than 3 meter) connection via a 'whole house' protector.

If that current is not connected low impedance (ie hardwire has no sharp bends) to upgraded earth ground electrodes, then that current will be inside hunting for earth ground via interior appliances and wires. That can even cause nuisance tripping. Because a current that should not be inside is inside.

That one human mistake that creates nuisance tripping. Another can be electronics that are missing required line filters. Resulting high frequency noise can cause some ELCD/RCD circuits to become confused and to intermittently trip.

Do not cure symptoms. Sensitivity is not the problem. Currents that should not be anywhere inside are the problem and what must be addressed. Those currents must connect low impedance (ie hardwire has no splices) to earth ground electrodes BEFORE entering.

It only pick the best route to go. Lightning rod and the cable and etc parts provide the least resistance compare to others. Also, its position is nearer to the sky and it direct goes to the ground. Common sense.

I just changed the ELCB to a much more expensive Made-in-Germany one(= RM200) and the "lightning always tripping ELCB problem" of many years finally got solved since about 10 years ago. A hardware shopkeeper told me about the solution.
....... Seems, the problem was caused by cheapo housing developers installing low-quality RM50 Made-in-Malaysia ELCBs.

Note that accidentally shorting the live, neutral and earth wires will also trip the ELCB, eg when I DIY change or add a 3-pin electrical wall socket. Also if water has entered into the 3-pin plug/socket or electrical appliance while it is active.

Heard of a con-man electrician changing the whole electrical wiring of the house(= costs RM3k) and still could not solve this problem.

yes cheapo elcb maybe a cause of trips

yes really dont need to change whole wiring.
need to troubleshoot what and where is the cause. maybe 1 or 2 wire loops higher leakage so dont need to change whole house unless wiring are like 20 years old.

this is the reason we have this topic to learn and k experiences in fixing the problem,

i notice in another forum some people change their elcb/rccb to 300mA rating.
this method to fix is highly dangerous . 300mA can kill you .
the recommended is 100mA.



This post has been edited by tien171: Oct 21 2019, 04:57 PM

The root cause of this problem is the pro-business government allowing housing developers to sell-then-build houses to their advantage, instead of the normal build-then-sell houses, ... or airplanes, ships, luxury cars(or Ferraris and Porshes), 30-carat diamond rings, etc.

MCA's Lee San Choon = Plotek.! Plotek.!

No one will buy a build-then-sell house if they know the ELCB always trip when lightning happens far away = only good-quality ELCB would have been installed during the building process of such new houses. .

Even 1 ma can kill. Some nations require ELCB to be 5 milliamps. Even 100 milliamps is dangerous. Why then would anyone use a 300 ma ELCB (or why is it even available)?

This post has been edited by westom: Oct 22 2019, 05:24 AM

developers/ house builders want save cost .
they will install cheaper ones
cost difference can be about 50 rm on the elcb.

This post has been edited by tien171: Oct 22 2019, 11:25 AM

That right .
i guess it all comes to COST .

to build a house with 5 mA you need quality wire s, MCB ,RCCB , plugs and D box
i guess it will cost 3 X more .

It is accomplished by putting one on every branch circuit.

Wire quality, receptacles, and plugs are not significant. Appliances can leak many tens of microamps. Or sometimes as much as hundred microamps. One RCD means it must not trip when all appliances are leaking 100 or 200 microamps.

Originally, RCDs were only required on bathroom and kitchen circuits.

Interesting his how the guy who developed it also demonstrated it. He had his daughter in a bathtub. And threw a powered radio in that bathtub. I had to reread the article many times before I finally understood (accepted) it. That was back when radios did not use transistors. The technology is that old.

This post has been edited by westom: Oct 22 2019, 04:59 PM

great idea ... hope some manufacturer will design and sell cheaper RCCB s

Current price for some RCDs is as low at 60 rm. Some that are installed in the breaker box (as a circuit breaker) can be 250 rm.

This post has been edited by westom: Oct 22 2019, 05:05 PM

The lightning no need to strike your lightning arrestor or power line to cause trip. When lightning strikes nearby, voltage can be induced by electric and magnetic field, thus produce voltage and current surge. Electrical wiring in house also can get excited by nearby lightning. These wires are already passed the RCCB or ELCB you have at the power inlet.

The best protection is to have surge arrestor as close as possible to your appliances. So, other than RCCB/ELCB, your PC or any other sensitive devices should be plugged into sockets that has surge protector.

Note that most electronic devices are very sensitive to surge. Normal surge protection by using normal varistor like devices might not be fast enough for protection, unlike electrical appliances. It is also good to have a fast surge protector at DB, perhaps in micro seconds range.

Leakage current is always there in your house wiring. This is because your house wiring is lined close to each other between L and N. When you have an appliance running on another circuit, the AC will induced voltage on the wire next to it and generate a stray voltage (like air core transformer ). If you measure voltage between L and N on OFF state wire, you probably get reading perhaps even 20Vac. This is no load situation and it has low current. That is why you see your test pen lit up even when the switch is off. Normally, it will cause no problem in general.

For layman, just check your ELCB/RCCB,

household = use 100ma
factory and industrial = use 300ma

if your house is using 30ma and trip frequently, you may change to 100ma and see if that solve your problem

Above are local standard, all new houses are require to use 100ma RCCD, and 10ma for water heater.

Then we put numbers to it. A lightning strike nearby to a long wire antenna (designed to be most sensitive to E-M fields) can result in thousands of volts on that antenna wire. Then connect a one milliamp Neon glow lamp (ie NE-2) to that antenna lead. Voltage then drops to maybe 60 volts. Because the induce surge has high voltage if current does not flow. And has near zero voltage if even less than one milliamp flows.

Induced surges are made irrelevant by what is already inside every electrical device.

Lightning struck a lightning rod. That means maybe 20,000 amps was flowing down the lightning rod's hardwire to earth. Just 1.3 meters away, inside, was an IBM PC. It did not even blink. And either did any other office electronics. That was a major E-M field confronting electronics - that did not even cause a software program to flicker. Because the destructive power of nearby E-M fields is overhyped by speculation. And does not exist once we include relevant numbers.

A tree was struck by lightning. Some ten meters distant, a cow died. Wild speculation assumes the cow was killed by an induced surge. Of course not. Lightning is a connection from a cloud (maybe 3 km up) to earthborne charges (maybe 4 km distant). That path also went up the cows hind legs and down its fore legs. What only observation speculated was an induced surge, in reality, was a direct strike. Conclusions only from observation create junk science. Once the many facts (with numbers) are learned, then that observation results in a completely different conclusion.

Nearby lightning strikes are either direct strikes or do not do damage. Nearby strikes that would trip an ELCD/RCD must somehow create what trips it. Not a voltage. A current that exceeds 100 ma. Induced surges just do not have that current. But many assume it was a induced surge rather than discover it was actually a direct strike.

Furthermore an ELCD/RCD requires that current to flow for tens of milliseconds or longer. Lightning is a microseconds event. too short to trip it. Something completely different (ie a follow-through current) may be relevant. But that is not a nuisance trip. That is a problem that must be protected from. And that is something that should not happen if other solutions are properly implemented.

This post has been edited by westom: Oct 22 2019, 11:23 PM

Wow, reply with 9 years old thread

And that current is microamps or less. Much of electricity flows outside the wire - the skin effect. Like the nearby lighting strike, it can create high voltages only when no current is flowing. ELCD/RCD is not about voltage. It is about current. That leakage may be in the microamp or nanoamp region. Well below what is normal leakage in electronics (powered off or on).


This post has been edited by westom: Oct 22 2019, 11:28 PM

Direct hit normally create very strong voltage, thus create high current surge as well. As you know sudden high voltage can also force high current flow. A strong lightning nearby can damage computer in a network, especially comm port. This was my own experience. There were many people around not to miss a direct hit, but no one could confirm if it was direct hit or not either.

A direct hit to an electrical pole at my house near the pole ground wire has caused part of the concrete pole to chipped and my house ELCB tripped. Luckily nothing damaged. No, as far as I know scientists have not really understood what caused this and that is different situation.

The skin effect where current flows more in wire core or more on wire surface is not not a concern at normal AC in house. The amount current flow is still the same. The skin effect become more concern at higher frequencies. At frequency even as low as 2.4GHz the cable can be hollow to counter power loss due to skin effect.

Skin effect is why AC power wires cannot carry any more current if thicker. And why voltage on one wire can create a voltage (with almost no current) on another. Skin effect applies to all frequencies down to but not including zero hertz. The point - skin effect explains why one wire can induce a voltage on another. And create maybe nanoamps of current - virtually a zero current.

So what is relevant? Leakage from wires is totally irrelevant - once we put numbers to that speculation. Most leakages are from appliances. Which is why some RCDs do not trip for a massive (less than) 5 milliamps. And why an RCD of 100 milliamps is massively above that normal leakage currents.

Described were some reasons for 'nuisance tripping'. In each case, due to some actual defect. For 'in the wall' wires to create nuisance tripping, insulation of two wires must be so massively compromised that wire separation is well less than 1 mm.

There are simple techniques for finding that defect. But the usual suspects are being ignored. ELCB/RCDs are almost last on a list of possible suspects. Tripping is reporting a defect.

Again, due to not having required solutions, then lightning (that did not trip that ELCB) creates a follow through current. We know a follow through current existed because that current is long enough to trip an ELCB. Lightning it not. Time is another parameter that must not be ignored.

We also know that comm ports are usually damaged not due to lightning on the communication lines. It is most often due to lightning incoming on AC mains. Then outgoing via comm lines. Damage is often on the outgoing path. A fact that get ignored if a conclusion is made only using observation.

A direct strike to all household appliances can be lightning striking poles many blocks away. But again, it is not the lightning that trips the ELCB. And that follow through current does not exist if appropriate solutions were implemented.

20,000 amps is too short to trip an ELCB. But the resulting 'follow-through' current created by that voltage means a large current that is longitudinal mode. Those type of currents easily trip ELCB/RCDs. 'Follow-through current does not exist if appropriate solutions were implemented.

Not sure what you were trying to say here. I know about skin effect not sure why you brought up the topic. As I mentioned before, the leakage seen in house wiring is not much a concern unless it is high.

You should tell TS how to know if ELCB/RCD defective since there are simple technique.

we dont used ELCB since 20 years ago. If your house still using ELCB then call your wireman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residual-current_device

The point of skin effect is overlooked. You said wires leak current. That that leakage can even be measured by 20 volts on a meter. That 20 volts is not leakage currents. It is an induced voltage created because current flows outside of a wire - skin effect. Current associated with that 'skin effect' created voltage is probably nanoamperes. Completely irrelevant to any ELCB/RCD operation.

Wires are not the typical source of microamp leakage currents. Appliances are. Even that resulting current is so low that a 5 ma RCDs should not trip. So a 100 ma RCD is well above what would cause an ELCB/RCD trip.

A 100 ma trip is saying that some defect existed. One example of why is 'follow through' current. Correct the reason for that current rather than blame induced currents by adjacent L-N wires. Replacing a 100 ma RCD with a 300 ma one is only to cure symptoms. Instead, address the actual problem.

I was referring the current produced by induced voltage by adjacent circuit as leakage current. That is not correct. It should not be called leakage current, but ghost current perhaps.

You were talking about the leakage current from appliance in circuit in OFF condition, which is quite common also and undeniable.

I'm not sure which article you read on skin effect though. For me, skin effect and induced voltage are two separate things. The induced voltage is the result of electrical and magnetic field. The skin effect is about where in the cross section of a conductor the current flow. That is one of the reason multi-core cable is used. The skin depth of a 50Hz copper electrical wire is about 9mm. The skin depth formula has nothing related to voltage as far as I know.

Skin effect is and because of E-M fields. Only pure DC stays inside copper wire. As frequency increase, more of the E-M field is outside that wire.. As noted, 2.4 Ghz has much more outside the wire. Skin effect or what induces on adjacent wires exists with any frequency as long as it is above zero. Skin effect is why AC electricity is typically only inside (if I remember the number) 9 mm inside a wire.

So yes, 20 volts is possible if two wires are together long enough and no current is conducted on the 'induced' wire. But once that wire starts conducting nanoamps, then that voltage drops to near zero. Nanoamps or even microamps are no where near relevant to a 100 ma ELCB/RCD. Numbers say move on to other suspects.

So what causes over 100 ma to trip that ELCB/RCD? Not just any current. It must be a longitudinal current. And it must be long enough for an ELCB/RCD to respond. A likely suspect is 'follow-through' current. It exists because that lightning current was all but invited inside. Creating temporary and conductive paths that permit a follow-through current (a longitudinal mode current) to exist long enough and strong enough to trip that ELCB/RCD.

Obviously replacing that circuit breaker or installing one with a higher rating would neither avert another trip or even address the problem. But again, this is only one suspect. A likely one that has been observed and eliminated elsewhere. And one not solved by so many other suggestions.

This post has been edited by westom: Oct 25 2019, 12:07 PM

Reply: for domestic use, 300mA cannot be used based on suruhanjaya tenaga.... for power circuit 30mA and light circuit 100mA.... if u dont have 2 diff circuit, then just go with 100mA.... never 300mA for house...

Hi, sorry to bring out the old post. I have same problem also, but is only happen when my surge protector connected to the wall socket, even its switched off. I need to unplug it to prevent the tripping. I have 2 surge protector, 1 bought at aeon don't know what brand that connected to the router, modem and nas, and another 1 is belkin. The aeon one is completely fine even a strong lightning strike. But belkin one cause the circuit breaker tripped even a very light lightning. Anyone know what is happening? Thank you.

some Q s to get a clearer pic of your situation .

1. the 2 surge protector here are those power strip/ with surge protector ?

2. is the power trip s is on the RCCB unit in the DB box or ??

you said CB trip. note CB do NOT trip during lightning . in normal case. and CB=MCB is the correct name. MCB usually trips at short circuit.
the RCCB is the one that trips . mean the whole house lose power .
if MCB trips , you still have main power to some part of your house .

3. my guess the one from Aeon the protection may not be working . has it got a PROTECT LED indicator ?
if this is some ahchong brand ..then the above is true. my guess.
will help if you know the brand , or just paste a pix.

4. the belkin power strip has LED Protected right ? is it lighted ?
what electronics is connect to this strip. ?
if this is the power trip cause , how did you confirm ?

5, Are you also implying that without the belkins ( unplug ) you will not get any more power trips ?

6, Before you start use/buy the first surge protector mention in ur msg. Did you have frequently power trips whole house ?

7. How old is your house. Landed ?



This post has been edited by Momo33: Dec 28 2020, 03:28 AM

cos the issues/problems are still valid and relevant today

i am sure many users are suffering in silence. cos lack of support and info to fix this .



This post has been edited by Momo33: Dec 28 2020, 12:43 AM

Hi, thanks for the reply.

1. Yes, both are power strip surge protector.

2. The power trips is on rccb.

3. The aeon power strip I think is surge stabiliser, no led light, only one button that always on. Can't see the brand, only can see ADAPORT and MAX LOAD NOT EXCEED 3000W. But it has sirim sticker.

4. Belkin power strip has 2 led light, protected and earthed, both lighted. My pc, monitor, printer, phone charger and battery charger connected to it. Yes, this cause the trip, once I unplug from the wall, nothing happen. Can't leave it in the socket when thunderstorm. Sure trip.

5. Yes, without belkin, no trip even a strong lightning.

6. Yes, my old "forgot what brand" power strip surge protector also can cause the trip when thunderstorm, but not as sensitive as this belkin. Belkin one is guarantee trip when lightning. Even a small lightning. Old one at lease thunderstorm with strong lightning only trip.

7. House is 13 years double story. Landed.

Hope these will make it clear. Its really annoying, I can't use pc when raining.

And thanks again for the help

from your info.. point 5 .

1. if i understand correct .. you are saying if you totally unplug the belkin from the wall / mean pc is disconnect from power ... you will not experience any power trip .
is this right ?

for now i suspect the PC has high leakage when a surge hits. / means its leaks current
the belkin will also divert current to ground .

if the total leakage ie , pc + belkin s exceed 100mA . The RCCB will trip.

one way to check if the belkin is really out .
is .. keep it plug in the wall socket but unplug/ remove all the pc , display , etc from the belkins .

mean the belkin is plug to wall but no load .
see it this test will trip the RCCB . if it does not trip ...then you can say the PC is leaking much current .


2. if you have a digital multimeter . can you measure the AC voltage at the wall socket . Neutral to Earth voltage .
this value is an indicator if you have earth grounding issues.







This post has been edited by Momo33: Dec 28 2020, 05:52 PM

As Momo mentioned above, or it could be your Belkin strip is having issue. Did you try pluggin in other devices than your PC during thunderstorm? That would help to determine if its PC fault of the strip itself.

all the best

The mov inside surge arrestors are consumables.
Either change the mov or change the strip

Another you can try is to add a 10ma rcd to the belkin.
If trip just trip the power strip instead of whole house.

Hi, thanks momo33, veejay and fireballs for the suggestion and help. Just an update here, I add a spd at my db, and seems like the problem solve. Just now lightning for about 5 minutes, no trip at all while my pc is running and still using the belkin surge protector. Not a strong lightning, but at lease didn't trip.

yes a SPD installed before the RCCB will suppress the power surge and bring the current to your earth rod ground.

today around 6pm around puchong area have a big thunderstorm as sure some there will have power trips.

That note that a ELCB / RCCB cannot save your electronic from being damage by lightning Surge.
they are there for human life protection .
the mechanical trip is too slow to stop a lightning surge typically 50 uSec .
response time for RCCB is around 30mSec.



This post has been edited by Momo33: Jan 1 2021, 02:54 PM

Got same issue very frequently trip when lighting even not near house. Using ELCB (not rccb)

You should find a expert/profesional electrician to check. If you are living in a landed house, most likely your house earthing system needs to be improve.

I would suggest during tripping time, unplug (remove from wall plug and not just turning it off) any powerstrip/extension that you have and if still continues, then trying switching one by one of you elcb, and yes this troubleshooting memang makan masa.