Hi,
Hopefully in the next few weeks I am going to aquire a electric
welder. Now co-incidently I am in the process of re-wiring the garage.
This is just a new 32A MCB (type B) in the RCD protected side of the
consumer unit with a new ring with a couple of double sockets and
SFCUs for the grinder and compressor. Now, am I likely to get a lot of
nuisance tripping from the welder? Am I better off feeding it directly
from the consumer unit 16A MCB (non RCD side) and fitting a dedicated
RCD socket? Is it worth RCDing at all ?
Secondly someone else has suggested using an industrial 16A (caravan
style) socket dedicated for the welder. Is this worth the trip?

Not shure of the wattage of the welder but it presently runs from a
standard 16A socket.

Thanks for any advice,
Tim

On 18 Jul 2003 06:19:20 -0700, (tzd3sw) wrote:

Now, am I likely to get a lot of
nuisance tripping from the welder?

Yes. Supply it without an RCD, certainly not a shared one, and use a
type C MCB.

Domestic welders have low leakage currents, but a big oil-cooled one
may be substantial.

Secondly someone else has suggested using an industrial 16A (caravan
style) socket dedicated for the welder.

Yes, if it's fused suitably. You may be OK with a square-pin domestic
socket, but some brands may suffer from contact welding at high
currents.

I run an SIP Migmate 130 off a domestic 13 A socket without problem.

Rgds Richard