Some background first: I have a single-phase system (220V). I installed an RCBO direct from the external supply and then the output from that went into the main breaker panel outside the house.
I seem to have some leakage somewhere in the house, which kept tripping the RCBO. There's another RCBO built into the subpanel inside the house and that doesn't trip, so I went back to the installation of the new RCBO.
The manual says to wire the hot/live cable to the live RCBO input and the neutral cable must first go to the neutral block on the panel and then from there to the neutral RCBO input. Each subpanel has its own ground, so I only link the ground and neutral blocks on the main panel.
This alternative installation doesn't make sense to me, but if that's what the installation pamphlet says then I won't argue. The RCBO still trips - so that didn't solve that problem.
However, now I have a new problem. If I switch on one of the breakers, I get the normal 220V going through that breaker.
BUT NOW I'M GETTING ABOUT 2V-6V COMING FROM THE OUTPUT OF THE NEIGHBORING BREAKERS EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE OFF! Why is this happening???
(It may be that this was the case beforehand and I just didn't notice. Could ALL the breakers be faulty? Or could it be some weird wiring with the main breaker that's the cause of it - maybe connecting the cables into the wrong ends?)
A related problem is that there's 220V going to ground when one of the breakers is on. I think that's normal. But the electrician has probably connected the earth to the pole carrying the cables from the grid. It's a metal pole sticking out of the ground - and registers 220V. Is that normal? Is that safe!???
I'm tearing my hair out. And I've called in 3 electricians already, but we live in Thailand where just about anybody can call themselves an electrician. They don't seem to know much more about installations (and RCBOs) than I do (which isn't all that much).
Any ideas? Please help!