AUTOMATED ELECTRICAL

PROTECTION SYSTEM FOR

DOMESTIC APPLICATION

ARSHAD A K
14
S7F

CONTENT

INTRODUCTION
MAJOR FAULTS
ELCB
MCB
SYSTEM OPERATION
EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
CONCLUSION
REFERENCE

INTRODUCTION

Power reliability and continuity is very important and critical

to a domestic building..

Single-phase is very common system used in domestic..

Three common factors are faulty wiring in the house,

improper flexible cords, and faulty appliance..

FAULTS

OVERCURRENT
FAULT

OVERLOAD

EARTHLEAKAG
E FAULT

SHORTCIRCUIT

OVERCURRENT FAULT

Overcurrent fault is occur when the current exceeds the rated

current carrying capacity of the conductor

There are two types:

Short circuit

Over load

EARTH LEAKAGE FAULT

It exists when unintended path is established between the

normal current carrying conductors which has contact directly
or indirectly with earth.

Earth leakage is residual current typically in very low current

range.

If it increases a threshold for that device or circuit it becomes

earth fault which is essentially a short between phase and
earth or body

ELCB

There are two types of ELCB: voltage operated and current

operated..

The RCD operates by measuring the current balance between

two conductors using a differential current transformer..

Contd

MCB

The MCB is resettable protective device which designed to

isolate a circuit during an overcurrent (both overload and short
circuit) event without using fuse.

MCB is choosing for building protection rather than fuse

because of its resettable capability.

The mechanism of operation includes a movable handle that

extends at the outside of the housing..

Cont

The handle has basically three stable positions: on, off, and
tripped.

The mechanism will respond to instantaneous high current to

open the contact and therefore interrupt the current flow.

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SYSTEM OPERATION

The automatic system is designed for domestic electrical

system to auto-reset ELCB and auto-detection if any
permanent fault occurred.

The system operation is divided into two parts:

Power recovery
Fault location detection.

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Power Recovery

Power recovery is a process of turning back the power ON

when electric power encounters unexpected shut down for a
period of time due to tripping or faults..

Currently, for home electrical system, power recovery is

manually done..

Once fault detected and isolated, ELCB will be switched ON

and supply is restored.

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Fault Location Detection

Domestic electrical fault would normally occur at individual

circuit, either switches or sockets.

Fault location detection may facilitate the process of power

recovery to recover from unexpected power outage.

Fault detection can be done through current difference

between the amount of current travelling into the load and the
current travelling out of the load.

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Cont.

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Components

Current Sensor
It is very important to select an accurate current sensor in
this project.
The accuracy of current value measured by this current sensor
will lead to the accurateness of detecting fault location and fault
isolation from the main line.
Arduino UNO Board
The Arduino UNO board is the main microcontroller
board in this project.
All calculations and data collections will be done through this
board.
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EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

A circuit has been setup as in Fig. 3 with two current sensors

(line and neutral) connected to the input of Arduino board for
simulation purpose.

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A. Normal Condition

This test is to verify that the system is able to detect normal

condition, at which power is ON.

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B. Auto-Reset ELCB
This section is to test
the functionality of
automatic ELCB reset
operation.

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C. MCB Check Operation

Once the ELCB reset operation reaches Reset Test: 3, and

the power is still 0, the system will check each MCB since
MCB is installed at individual circuit.

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CONCLUSION

Automated Electrical Protection System or Auto-EProS can be

considered as a new invention in electrical protection field.
It is an additional feature to the electrical protection system to
enhance the performance of domestic protection system.

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REFERENCES

Stevenson, William D., Jr., Elements of Power Systems

Analysis,McGraw-Hill Electrical And Electronic Engineering
Series
Electrical Safety Hazards Handbook, Littelfuse USA, 2005
QO and QOB Miniature Circuit Breakers with Ground Fault
Protection, Schneider Electric, 2009
Residual Current Device. [Online] Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Residual-current device
Difference between Fuse and Circuit Breaker. [Online]
Retrieved from
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-a-f
useand- a-circuit-breaker.htm
Miniature Circuit Breakers: Application Guide, ABB Inc.,
USA, Apr 2009
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