MEM RCBO's

[carl9254]

Hello,

Had a price of £80 for a new MEM rcbo from edmunsons. Anyone know of anywhere cheaper to get them or an alternative that will fit? Just after about 10 B32's for a domestic board.

Thanks

 

[Andy78]

7 seconds worth of googling

The Electrical Warehouse Offers For Sale Memera RCBOs

 

[jeremy]

May not fit older MEM boards. I tried a couple of months ago to find one, it was going to be materially cheaper to change the whole board.

 

[ipf]

May not fit older MEM boards. I tried a couple of months ago to find one, it was going to be materially cheaper to change the whole board.

Should have said it was older. Hows about a ref. number. Mind you.....you're on line, aren't you...

 

[somersetsparks]

Gonna be contraversial here, but if you file down the busbar a bit, the memshield 3 fit fine. I have considered the adverse effects etc. Etc.

 

[davesparks]

Gonna be contraversial here, but if you file down the busbar a bit, the memshield 3 fit fine. I have considered the adverse effects etc. Etc.

And if you snip a strand or two out of large conductors they fit in to smaller terminals perfectly!

 

[trev]

Gonna be contraversial here, but if you file down the busbar a bit, the memshield 3 fit fine. I have considered the adverse effects etc. Etc.

GASP!
Seriously?
Crikey!

 

[trev]

And if you snip a strand or two out of large conductors they fit in to smaller terminals perfectly!

After the lst suggestion that makes perfect sense mate.
Jesus bloody Christ. Would anyone seriously consider filing down a bus bar?

 

[somersetsparks]

And if you snip a strand or two out of large conductors they fit in to smaller terminals perfectly!

Some call it a haircut lol
On a serious note, cable haircuts are bad, but if you have a look at the size of the old memshield busbar, it's huge compared to all other makes, you could just buy a generic 100A busbar and it would be a hell of a lot smaller then the filed down original.
I couldn't sleep at night having unnecessarily changed a perfectly good board at cost to the customer because I couldn't get an RCBO to fit.

 

[trev]

Could you sleep at night knowing that you'd filed down a bus bar to make something fit without any knowledge of how you'd affected the bar?
May as well just give those pesky cables a haircut imho.

 

[somersetsparks]

Yes perfect sleep thanks, we're hardly talking a lot of filing, if you measure the bar, there much bigger then the modern equivalent, and if you were really picky you could calculate the csa of the remaining busbar lug and see if it was adequate for the load.
Or replace the whole bar with a new generic replacement which would have far smaller lugs anyway.

 

[Plonker 3]

Regardless of how little you file off, the manufacturers provide a certain size busbar rated at a certain current for a good reason. That reason isn't so you can adapt it to your requirements though.

 

[somersetsparks]

Regardless of how little you file off, the manufacturers provide a certain size busbar rated at a certain current for a good reason. That reason isn't so you can adapt it to your requirements though.

And the very same manufacturer now supplies smaller busbar, and smaller terminals on their new MCB'S. Granted the makeup of the copper could be different etc. But if your connecting a 6A load to a slightly filed down busbar which was rated at 63A per way, I don't think using common sense you could realistically see an issue.

 

[Plonker 3]

Until someone comes along and removes MCB and alters the circuit for one it with that is rated equivalent to the busbar, which is now filed down and incorrectly rated.

 

[somersetsparks]

Which is a valid point DillB, I suppose we could go down the lines of leaving a notice inside the board etc. But we are talking domestic in this situation, I have only personally done it to fit 6A RCBO'S to lighting circuits and I would do it again.
It's one of those modifications they certainly ain't gonna teach at college but in practise, it's not a perfect world.

 

[ElectricianJohn]

Hello,

Had a price of £80 for a new MEM rcbo from edmunsons. Anyone know of anywhere cheaper to get them or an alternative that will fit? Just after about 10 B32's for a domestic board.

Thanks

I usually get my RCBOs from the site below for around £13, if this helps.

Residual Current Operated Circuit Breakers - RCBO's - NB3LEU