What are the advantages and disadvantages of an RCBO?
9 Answers
Answered by Elec-craft Electrical Services
15th September 2020
Elec-craft Electrical Services answered the question "What are the advantages and disadvantages of an RCBO?"
The advantages of an RCBO? It is not an advantage in itself. An RCBO is a device that disconnects a circuit if a fault occurs, exactly the same as an mcb or a fuse does. But an RCBO has an added advantage over a fuse or mcb in that it also affords RCD protection, normally 30mA, which can detect neutral shorts to earth that a fuse or mcb cannot. Both fuses and mcb's protect individual circuits. An RCBO also protects individual circuits. The advantage of an RCBO is it can provide 30mA RCD protection individually to a circuit whereas adding 30mA RCD protection to circuits with only a fuse or mcb is usually provided by adding an RCCB to a group of circuits. In that situation multiple circuits are affected by one fault on any of the circuits being covered by the RCCB because when the RCCB trips it disconnects all of the circuits in its group. This is inconvenient. It is far better to be able to limit inconvenience by adding 30mA RCD protection individually to each circuit and this is achievable by using RCBOs or a mixture of RCBOs and mcbs. Disadvantages? There aren't any as such. If you compare prices of RCBOs to mcbs then yes they are more costly. They are also larger being taller than an equivalent mcb so take up more space in a consumer unit. That's about it.
Answered by Martin Kaine
22nd May 2020
Martin Kaine answered the question "What are the advantages and disadvantages of an RCBO?"
advantage of an rcbo is is it tripsbout you only lose that circuit,with rcds they look after other circuits,even though they are safe if theres a fault normally neutral to earth the rcd trips causing you to lose the other circuits protected by the rcd,rcbo are my choice they only problem with them is there expensive
Answered by KCHS Electrical Services
22nd March 2020
KCHS Electrical Services answered the question "What are the advantages and disadvantages of an RCBO?"
Advantage of RCBO Is that along with providing additional protection to each individual circuit in the event of a over-voltage fault it also provides earth leakage fault protection and would disconnect in the event of someone getting electrocuted. Disadvantage of RCBO is it may be a lot more expensive than using RCD with clusters of MCB.
Answered by AEI Electrical
1st March 2020
AEI Electrical answered the question "What are the advantages and disadvantages of an RCBO?"
An RCBO is a protective device. Much like an RCD. The difference being a RCBO protects each individual circuit whereas the RCD will protect numerous circuits. The benefits of this are if there is a fault on a certain circuit only that circuit will trip (lose power). With an RCD all the circuits it’s protecting will lose power.
Answered by TB electrical
12th April 2019
TB electrical answered the question "What are the advantages and disadvantages of an RCBO?"
The advantage of having rcbo's is that each circuit is a separate device, unlike an RCD which protects a number of circuits. So in the event of a fault only the faulty circuit would be off. The disadvantages is that the cost of consumer unit with rcbo's is much more than a dual RCD protected consumer unit.
Answered by Electri-Call-Us
30th March 2019
Electri-Call-Us answered the question "What are the advantages and disadvantages of an RCBO?"
Current regs don’t really allow the use of single RCD boards anymore except for certain installations. The RCD trips if there is an imbalance due to a fault path from live to earth and or neutral to earth. If an rcd trips then everything upstream or connected after it loses powers. RCBO’s work exactly the same but it is only the circuit with the issue that trips. So in event of a say a cut cable whilst cutting the hedge or grass you won’t mind a RCD tripping everything as it’s a safety device, now you have a neutral to earth fault it could be on any circuit connected to that rcd you won’t know where it is unless you have test equipment. Usually neutral to earth faults can’t be found by turning off switches or breakers as these only isolate live conductors. RCBOs will still trip under neutral to earth faults but it will only be the circuit with the fault that will be affected.
Answered by M.E.T Electrical Ltd
27th February 2019
M.E.T Electrical Ltd answered the question "What are the advantages and disadvantages of an RCBO?"
We do not see any disadvantages to having RCBOs installed, other than an increased cost to install them. We see RCBOs as a much better option to the standard RCD consumer unit. An RCBO is installed to each individual circuit and it does the job of a circuit breaker and RCD. This means that it provides overload protection, from too much current (amps) being used, as well as additional protection from electrical shock - 'tripping' the circuit before a fatal shock.
Answered by P&J Electrical
24th February 2019
P&J Electrical answered the question "What are the advantages and disadvantages of an RCBO?"
RCBOs are designed to protect individual circuits from both overload (drawing to much power in layman’s terms) and earth faults whereas RCDS only provide earth fault protection and normally protect multiple circuits with the overload protection provided by other means, typically miniature circuit breakers, Under fault conditions the advantage of having RCBOs installed are you will only loose the individual circuit where the fault is present instead of a bank of numerous circuits which would be typically protected by an RCD. The only disadvantage of RCBOs when compared to RCDS is the increased cost to purchase as opposed to RCDS but generally you get what you pay for.
Answered by Electrical Innovations (Derby) Ltd
10th February 2019
Electrical Innovations (Derby) Ltd answered the question "What are the advantages and disadvantages of an RCBO?"
I don’t really see any disadvantages of using RCBO’s to protect your circuits other than the cost of them compared to other options. This is quite a bit higher than using RCD’s Installing RCBO’s to each circuit will give you a higher level of protection against faults and unwanted nuisance tripping.