RCCB stands for Residual Current Circuit Breaker. While both RCCB and ELCB offer protection against electric shocks, RCCBs are more advanced and can detect imbalances in both live and neutral currents.
RCCB contains sensing device + Breaker. As it detects residual Current it trips the circuit. Use mostly in Single phase supply. While ELR is Earth leakage Relay.
ELCB and RCCB are both devices that protect against electric shocks and earth faults. However, they differ in how they detect faults:
ELCB:
ELCB stands for Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker. The ELCB is a safety device that protects a person from the electric shock when it comes in contact with a faulty device.
An ELCB consists of a coil that is connected in series with the earth terminal. When phase wire comes in contact with the body of the equipment, a voltage is developed in the earth conductor. This voltage operates the ELCB to trip the circuit.
This device is connected directly to an earth cable and detects earth leakage currents.
It’s a voltage-operated device that detects excess voltage.
ELCBs are effective at detecting direct leakage current to earth, but they’re not as reliable as RCCBs because they’re an older technology.
RCCB:
The earth leakage circuit breaker (ELCB) is not commonly used nowadays, and is replaced by a new circuit breaker known as RCCB.
RCCB stands for Residual Current Circuit Breaker. The residual current circuit breaker (RCCB) works on the principle of core balancing current transformer, i.e. it compares the currents flowing through the phase and neutral wires.
RCCB monitors the vector sum of currents through the phase wire and neutral wire, if the current flowing through the phase wire to the load returns back to the supply through the neutral wire, then their vector sum is zero. Hence, the RCCB does not operate.
Now, if there is any fault or a living being touches the phase wire, which results in the flow of some leakage current from phase wire to the earth. In this case, current in the phase wire and neutral wire becomes unequal and thus their vector sum is not equal to zero.
Under this condition, the core balancing current transformer of RCCB sends an unbalance current to the relay’s operating coil. Therefore, the RCCB trips the circuit and isolate the faulty circuit from the healthy circuit.
This device detects a fault by measuring incoming and outgoing currents in the live and neutral wires.
It’s a current-operated device that senses excess current in the circuit.
RCCBs are better suited to detecting different types of earth fault currents.
Connections: ELCBs require phase, neutral, and earthing wire connections, while RCCBs only require phase and neutral connections.
Earth wire: RCCBs don’t require an earth wire, while ELCBs do.
Trip current: RCCBs normally trip at currents above 5 milliamperes, while ELCBs normally trip when the voltage on the equipment exceeds 50 volts.
The main difference between RCCB and ELCB breakers is the way that they detect faults.
As we’ve mentioned above, an RCCB will detect a fault by measuring incoming and outgoing currents in the live and neutral wires, while an ELCB is connected directly to an earth cable so it can detect earth leakage currents.
If you have an Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker (ELCB) installed in your home, you do not need to change it to a Residual Current Circuit Breaker (RCCB). Both the ELCB and RCCB are electrical safety devices that cut off the electricity supply immediately upon detecting leakages that may result in an electric shock.
Voltage sensing ELCBs have some disadvantages: They do not detect faults that do not pass current through the CPC to the Earth rod. They do not allow a single building system to be easily split into multiple sections with independent fault protection, because Earthing systems are usually bonded to pipework.
The main difference between RCCB and ELCB breakers is the way that they detect faults.
As we’ve mentioned above, an RCCB will detect a fault by measuring incoming and outgoing currents in the live and neutral wires, while an ELCB is connected directly to an earth cable so it can detect earth leakage currents.