How to find a current leak in an apartment and in a private house

What is leakage current?

The main thing you need to know is that there is always leakage current, and if it is present, this is normal. Moreover, I cannot imagine a situation when this current will not exist. Maybe only in an ideal world, where the resistance of insulation and all objects not intended to conduct current is equal to infinity.

The official definition is in GOST IEC 61008-1-2020 (the main GOST for VDT, if anyone doesn’t know) (clause 3.1.2): leakage current is “the current that flows into the ground or onto third-party conductive parts in an electrically intact circuit "

The leakage current “flows”, contrary to Kirchhoff’s first law, from the phase conductor to the ground. In this case, ground is considered to be everything that is electrically connected to the grounded neutral of the transformer at the transformer substation, and at the entrance to the house - to the main switch and the ground loop.

Write in the comments whether in this case the 1st law of grandfather Kirchhoff is violated?

In addition, there is also a capacitive component of the leakage current - after all, any cable and many devices (for example, heating elements) can be represented as a capacitor that has a reactance at a frequency (in this case) of 50 Hz.

In the picture below, I depicted, as far as my design abilities allow me, a typical situation - a TN-CS system, re-grounding, an RCD as a symbol of a threshold device that responds to leakage current, and the leakage current itself (dotted line):

Ground leakage current

The current leakage that occurs before the RCD (VDT) is not detected in any way and does not participate in the operation of the VDT.

There are tables that designers use to determine (plus or minus a tram stop)) the leakage current of various household appliances. For those interested, information is available in GOST IEC 60335-1-2015:

Permissible leakage currents of household appliances

Most household electrical appliances have a class I level of leakage current.

As for electrical wiring, the leakage current is estimated with approximately the same accuracy according to the PUE, clause 7.1.83: “(...) the leakage current of electrical receivers should be taken at the rate of 0.4 mA per 1 A of load current, and the network leakage current at the rate of 10 µA per 1 m length of phase conductor.

That is, if only a heater with an operating current of 10 A is connected to this group at a distance of 100 m, the leakage current of such an installation will be calculated as follows: 0.4 mA x 10 A = 4 mA (electrical receiver leakage), plus 0.01 mA x 100 m = 1 mA. In total, a leakage current during operation of such a heater of 5 mA will be the norm. And according to the same clause 7.1.83, RCCBs with IΔn = 10 mA cannot be placed in such a group - the background (normal, or operating) leakage current must be 3 times less than IΔn. Otherwise, get tired of running a hundred meters!

Leakage current direction

Ground leakage current

The direction of the currents depends on the type of grounding:

Insulated neutral IT - leakage occurs through the insulating layer to conductive elements. From them, it is diverted through conductors to the spreading area.
TN circuit with solidly grounded neutral - leakage passes through the REN bus to the input protection device.
CT system - leakage occurs through the main insulation from live to exposed conductive elements. The current is directed through the conductor and ground electrode to the local soil.

The direction and path of current in IT and CT circuits are the same.

Reason 4 – Cooperation with other companies

Most automated security systems are capable of limiting access to proprietary information only within one building or one enterprise (if several branches use a common data storage server).

In the process of joint implementation of a project by several companies, security services cannot fully monitor how access to the official secrets of each of the enterprises is realized.

As in the previous case, the use of cryptocontainers (hard drive encryption systems) will protect secret information from hacking.

Is every leak bad?

Leakage current is the unplanned current flowing in an electrical circuit. Ideal leakage values are zero, but this does not mean that any number above 0 is bad.

Modern cars are “stuffed” with a variety of devices: alarms, clocks, ECU memory (electronic control unit) and much more are connected to the network and consume electrical energy, not from time to time, but constantly. For example, when the car is not running, security systems begin to function. This means that some kind of loss of electricity, that is, current leakage, is acceptable, the main thing is that the values are not higher than normal.

This norm can be represented as a constant value, that is, it can be calculated by summing up the consumption of each element in the on-board network. Let's imagine that the security system takes a maximum of 20 mA, the clock 1 mA, etc. The total figure can reach up to 80 mA (0.08A), but it all depends on the specific car.

For example, in passenger cars, a current leak of a maximum of 40 mA can be considered normal if only standard electronics are functioning. When installing additional devices, the permissible value increases to 80. This includes speakers, emergency alarms, etc.

Self-diagnosis with a multimeter

Diagnostics is carried out using a conventional multimeter (tester). Current measurements are carried out in a mass discontinuity or in a “positive” section discontinuity. The mass discontinuity detection scheme is considered safe. To do this you need to do the following:

The multimeter settings correspond to measuring current readings in amperes (10-20 A);
Disconnect the negative terminal from the battery;
Connect one wire of the tester to the battery terminal;
The other wire of the tester should be on the removed wire.

The polarity may not be observed for the electronic tester. Before starting measurements, turn off the ignition and remove the key.

Detecting a leak in the positive gap involves the following scheme:

Set the amperes on the device;
Disconnect “+” from the battery;
Connect the negative connector of the tester to the disconnected battery terminal;
Connect the positive connector of the tester to the “-” battery.

If the steps are completed correctly, a current value will appear on the tester screen. Exceeding the norm (15–80 mA) by the found current value indicates a leak. As a result, you need to look for the problematic circuit.

Causes of current leakage

Leakage occurs even when the equipment is operating normally, but danger arises when the differential current limit is exceeded. The permissible rate may increase in several cases.

From an electrical appliance in an apartment or house

Breakdown to the housing in systems: A) TN-CS, B) TN-C

Voltage occurs on the body of household appliances (most often a water heater or automatic machine). The reason is damage to the heating element or breaks in the insulation. In a three-wire or two-wire equipment connection diagram, the phenomenon manifests itself in different ways:

Three-wire connection of the device according to the TN-CS scheme. In case of breakdowns of the grounded housing, the leakage is directed to the PE bus. The electromagnetic or thermal protection of the circuit breaker on the supply line is activated.
Two-wire connection of the device with grounding type TN-C. The leak will not cause the circuit breaker to trip and the equipment will continue to operate until a differential current is generated. The phenomenon will occur when touching the body, building element or water supply pipes. The leakage conductor from the device to the ground will be a person.

The greatest danger to life is the two-wire connection type.

In hidden wiring in a house or apartment

Damage to hidden cable insulation

It will be interesting➡ Magnetic starters. How does a magnetic starter work?

When wiring is hidden, there is a risk of damage to the insulated cable cores. They occur in the following cases:

Exceeding the standard service life. An apartment in a building built in the 50s-90s of the 20th century is equipped with aluminum or copper wiring. According to VSN 58-88, copper current-carrying conductors are replaced once every 30 years, aluminum - once every 30 years.
Incorrect use. Overloading the power supply leads to heating and destruction of the insulation of the power cable.
Mechanical damage to current conductors. They occur when the installation technology is broken or the walls are drilled incorrectly.

The insulation has a constant resistance value, but if a leak is suspected, it must be checked.

Reason 1 – Staff

Every employee of an enterprise is a potential threat to information security. People often take their work home - move work files to their flash drives, transfer them over unsecured connection channels, and discuss information with employees of competing companies.

Personnel actions can be intentional or unintentional. Unintentional actions are a consequence of ignorance of the regulations for working with commercial information.

There is always a risk of information leakage from personnel, and it cannot be completely eliminated. The security service can take measures that will limit the interaction of employees with confidential information:

Development of access control rules. The rules are a list of clear rights and restrictions that must be observed by each employee. Their basic principle is that each employee interacts only with the data that is necessary for his work. Thus, a simple manager will not be able to find out the product development technology and other important data that an attacker wants to know.
Compliance with the standards for documenting information that contains trade secrets.
Prompt identification of employees who pose a threat of data disclosure.

A study of the level of information security in Russian and foreign companies, which

SearchInform was conducted in
2018 and showed that ordinary employees were to blame for 74% of information security incidents. Full results of the study.

How to identify an employee who discloses data to a competitor?

Issues of monitoring the work of personnel with classified materials should be dealt with by an authorized employee or security department. Their task is to monitor the activities of employees throughout the working day and promptly identify any cases of information leakage.

In practice, you can detect a person leaking trade secrets by the following signs:

An employee is late at his workplace after work without warning. In this case, there is a possibility that he is trying to gain access to secret information at a time when there are no controllers nearby.

You need to pay attention to such an employee and see if his goal is to find out secret information. Special access accounting systems help control the time staff spend at the workplace. It is necessary to start an investigation only if specific facts of leakage of protected information become known.

An employee stores too many electronic company documents on his personal computer or smartphone.

This type of leak can be tracked in companies that use file system protection systems. The essence of their work is to create a common server that operates within the same corporate or Wi-Fi network. During each opening, copying and moving of data on a service PC, all information about the processes is sent to the server. Thus, the security administrator can identify from which PC and in what quantity sensitive information was transferred.

The employee unnecessarily copies paper documentation, the information in which is intended for official use only.

According to documentation standards, all physical folders and files containing trade secrets must be stored in a protected part of the archive. Access to documents is only possible for authorized employees. All data on the receipt of a secret document must be documented (indicating the name of the employee and the exact time the document was issued).

If a secret document falls into the hands of an unscrupulous employee, its unauthorized copying can be tracked using a scanner or copier, which stores a report on the latest actions. There are also fax machines that can only be accessed after the user ID/password pair is entered correctly.

The employee regularly violates general safety requirements when working with trade secrets.

If personnel regularly try to bypass the prohibition system by viewing prohibited resources, or use personal equipment to process sensitive data, it is necessary to implement additional user control systems. For example, DLP systems. Their task is to monitor all user correspondence from commercial mail and other email accounts that are registered in the system. The security module also prohibits the installation of third-party software, and all employee actions on the computer are visible to the security administrator.

The employee was found to have contacts with employees of competing companies.

In large companies, employees often communicate outside of working hours. Thus, they get more information about each other and can learn about the connections of a colleague and an employee of a competing organization. The possibility of ordinary friendly relations between people is also possible, but it is better to notify the company management about this in order to avoid unnecessary suspicions.

Characteristic signs

Leakage current path through a damaged rectifier diode

You can recognize current leakage by the following signs:

slight tingling when touching the wall, pipes, household appliances;
increased energy consumption for no apparent reason;
starts to knock out plugs when several devices are turned on;
interference and noise from a working radio;
electrical appliances do not work when plugged in;
electric shocks in the bathroom during water procedures.

To eliminate a phenomenon, you need to identify its cause.

What is a multimeter

First, let's take a look at the front panel of a digital multimeter. It has the following symbols:

switch-off mark – OFF;
alternating voltage sign – ACV;
constant voltage - DCV;
DC icon - DCA;
nominal resistance – Q.

All these elements are visible in more detail in the picture below:

Attention should be paid to three connectors intended for connecting probes. For proper operation of the device, it is very important not to confuse the connection of these elements with the tester. The marking COM indicates the output for the black wire. Intended for several types of measurements, red is connected via “MΩmA”. But this is only when testing current up to 200 mA. For higher parameters, the “10 ADC” connector is used. Follow the correct procedure to avoid blowing the fuse.

Outdated versions used an analogue or pointer design. Now such samples have practically disappeared due to too significant errors in measurements and an inconvenient format for working with the scoreboard.

For those who still have preserved such a rarity, we recommend watching the video:

Measuring current with a multimeter and other network parameters with modern digital testers is much more convenient and accurate. Let's look at the sequence of actions to identify the causes of the leak.

How does it proceed

Option one. The housing or frame of an electrical installation (refrigerator, system unit, washing machine, etc.) touches a metal conductor in contact with the ground. This could be a heating radiator, a damp concrete floor in an apartment, or another electrical installation connected to ground. At the point of contact, the circuit closes and the same leakage current occurs. What is the danger? Local heating of the contact point may cause a fire. If the contact is reliable, the current will increase to the threshold of the protection device (input circuit breaker on the power panel). With a weak touch, sparking and the same local heating will be observed. Most often, this leads to melting and further damage to the supply wires. In addition, this phenomenon provokes electromagnetic interference.
Option two. The electrical installation housing does not have contact with grounded objects and is not itself grounded. When a person touches the external panels, a load occurs (the human body is a conductor), and an electric current flows through the body. Since the resistance in this case is high, the current strength is insufficient to trip the circuit breakers. But harm to health, even death, can be caused. It is unacceptable to rely on the user to wear shoes with rubber soles. It’s the same as thinking that a linoleum-coated floor protects you from electric shock. Moreover, when the washing machine is operating, the owner’s hands are most often wet, which reduces the resistance of the skin.

And if in the first case a properly selected circuit breaker is sufficient, the second option requires more advanced measures. For example, the inclusion of an RCD in the power circuit, which reacts to a small leakage current rating, provokes the operation of a circuit breaker.

Important: Even if you are confident that electrical installations and current-carrying lines are in good condition, periodic checking of current leakage is mandatory in each room.

How can you determine whether there is a problem or not? To measure the leakage current, they usually call a team of master electricians who search for problematic installations using the device. At industrial facilities, this procedure is mandatory, as well as when commissioning housing stock. At large enterprises in big cities, such as Moscow, there are even full-time departments of specialists on this issue.

How can you independently check the leakage current in an apartment or residential building? The sensation of tingling electric current when you touch the body of the washing machine with a wet hand is a dubious and dangerous diagnosis.

Leakage from battery when ignition is off

If the ignition is turned off, the engine does not work and the battery does not recharge. All energy accumulated during movement is spent on powering consumers - heating windows, operating the media center, lighting. The more consumers that are not turned off, the faster the battery discharges. Therefore, all devices must be turned off during long periods of inactivity.

However, if the circuit of a TV, sound system, or air conditioner is incorrectly assembled, there may be a leakage current. Often the mistake that leads to a drop in battery voltage is putting these devices into sleep mode rather than turning them off completely. Checking for leaks with a multimeter will reveal the problem.

Oxidized wiring contacts lead to the occurrence of parasitic currents. The reason is resistance, which contributes to heating of the wires. In this case, stray currents are not the main thing - you can get a fire. Worn electrical wiring with twists and poor insulation has the same consequences.

However, the battery itself loses capacity over time and the rate of self-discharge increases. If there is no large current leakage, but the battery is discharged, then you need to check its suitability.

Prevention

In addition to the obvious danger of electric shock or fire, there are smaller troubles:

malfunctions of music, television equipment, computer equipment;
interference on radios, mobile and radio telephones, sound amplifiers;
a banal failure of expensive equipment: no device is designed for the flow of electric current through the housing;
increased energy consumption, even when household appliances are turned off.

How to deal with this?

Radical method: completely unplug all electrical appliances that you are not currently using. However, this is not a solution to the problem; sooner or later trouble will happen.

The correct solution is to localize and eliminate the current leak in the house. Do I need a special expensive device for this? It’s not necessary; you can look for the problem using available methods.

Important! All electrical appliances, especially those made in a metal casing, must be grounded!

Then any insulation failure or other malfunction that leads to the appearance of a dangerous potential on the housing will trigger the circuit breakers.

Not less important! Grounding without properly selected circuit breakers is as useless as an airbag without seat belts in a car. Only comprehensive protection will save your life and equipment.

Of course, grounding must be functional and properly organized. In a private home this is not a difficult task, but in an apartment building you will have to consult the management company.

The best means of prevention is the installation of a residual current device (RCD). If a leak occurs on any electrical appliance, the RCD will be triggered constantly. This is a signal to look for a problem, and at the same time protects residents.

Reason 2 – Recruitment problems

Frequent changes of personnel, large-scale changes in the organization of the company's work, lower wages, layoffs of employees - all this is part of the “turnover” of personnel. This phenomenon often causes leakage of classified information.

The crisis and lack of funds to pay salaries force management to worsen the working conditions of staff. The result is increased dissatisfaction among employees, who may leave or simply start sharing secret information with competitors. The problem of personnel change is especially important for management positions, because all managers must have access to secret documentation.

The threat of spreading secrets can be borne not only by employees who have already left, but also by current employees whose level of motivation is reduced.

To prevent problems, you should create the most comfortable working conditions for employees. In the event of a serious crisis, it is recommended to gather staff to discuss possible ways out of a difficult situation. It is important to notify employees of all changes in payroll in advance, and not upon payment of salary.

Sometimes an unfavorable atmosphere in a team is created by one employee.

SearchInform ProfileCenter analyzes employee correspondence via email and instant messengers and compiles their psychological portraits. The system determines the positive and negative aspects of a person’s character, which allows making the right management decisions.

To eliminate turnover, it is important to follow the following recommendations:

Establish a recruitment system. All leading organizations have a dedicated department that deals with hiring, firing, and employee support. You should not look for an employee to fill a vacant vacancy as quickly as possible. A good HR (recruitment specialist) is obliged to listen to several applicants for the position, disseminate information about the available vacancy on all popular Internet sites, and hold a final competition, the results of which will determine the most suitable candidate.
Introduction of a reward system. Employees should be rewarded for success at work, exceeding plans and concluding lucrative contracts. Examples of incentives could be increased wages, improved working conditions, or promotion up the career ladder.
Providing all employees with opportunities for professional growth and advanced training. Good companies always send their employees to advanced training courses or purchase online training for more convenient training. It is also recommended to organize trainings from leading industry professionals.

Simple ways to find leaks

A routine visual inspection may give unexpected results. All kinds of chafing and destruction of insulation on wires are not difficult to find.

You need to inspect not only the external wires; if possible, check the contact blocks and wiring harnesses inside the electric stove, washing machine or boiler.

Then you need to narrow your search area. This can be done if you have a competently laid out input panel: machines and RCDs are divided into consumption groups and premises. By sequentially disconnecting one or another group, you will be able to understand on which line the faulty electrical appliance is connected.

After determining the connection line, disconnect potentially dangerous electrical installations from the network one by one and observe the behavior of the RCD.

It will be interesting➡ Work and current power

If this does not produce results, we will use available technical means. To understand how to find a current leak, you do not need to have a specialized education. All processes are described in the school physics course. When you are not confident in your basic knowledge of electrical engineering, it is better to use the services of professional electricians.

An indicator screwdriver is an almost ideal (although not accurate from a measurement point of view) search device. The principle of its operation is precisely based on the operation of leakage currents. It is enough to find a piece of metal without paint and touch it with a measuring contact. The surface of plumbing fixtures can become an ideal conductor of electricity from a boiler or washing machine.

It is necessary to turn on all electrical appliances in operating mode and go through a pre-drawn plan (so as not to forget anything), touching all potentially problem areas.
Household multimeter (with a measurement range in tens of megohms). The calculation here is simple: according to the PUE (Electrical Installation Rules), insulation resistance ensures safety at a value of more than 20 MOhm.

Important: This standard corresponds to supply voltages up to 1000 V.

If the resistance is less than the set value, leakage and potential breakdown to the housing is possible.

How to correctly measure the insulation resistance in an electrical installation?

disconnect the electrical appliance from the power supply;
we set the operating mode of the measuring device to the MOhm position, the range is tens of units;
securely fasten one measuring probe to the contacts of the power plug (one at a time);
We apply the second probe to the unpainted parts of the body of the electrical appliance.

Important: During measurement, do not touch the contacts and exposed parts of the housing with your hands. Otherwise, distortions can be introduced into the measured value.

Symptoms of malfunction

Current leakage in a car can be determined mainly by the battery charge. With such a malfunction, the battery quickly discharges and after sitting at night, the starter cranks the engine very slowly and weakly. This is especially noticeable in winter, since the battery loses part of its charge when cooling, and additionally from voltage leakage.

Another symptom may be a barely noticeable backlight on the dashboard, stereo buttons, doors that are not tightly closed, or the alarm being connected in a circuit to another device that was previously turned off when the ignition switch was opened.

If a malfunction occurs and symptoms appear, it is necessary to promptly check the electrical circuit for current leakage.

How to find out if the insulation of a device is damaged

Although the best option is to use a magnetometer, it is rarely available in everyday life. Therefore, to check the device for breakdown and damage to the insulation, you can use a multimeter or other conventional tester to measure voltage.

You can also use a dot voltage indicator. This option is suitable if the electrical appliance has a metal case.

You can also use an indicator screwdriver to check a specific phase for current leakage. For this process, it will be enough to touch the phase with the indicator, and if it works, then the wire is really faulty.

On a note. If the device body is metal, the root cause is not always damage to the insulation. The problem may also be that the grounding contact is broken or broken.

During any work with an electrical appliance that may be faulty, it is extremely important to take all precautions and avoid contact of hands and body with the metal body and conductors of the electrical appliance, as well as with the measuring screwdriver.

To check a device with a multimeter, you first need to turn off the power to the network or device. Then set the multimeter to twenty megohms. Afterwards, fix one probe on the body of the device being tested, and the second on the plug pin.

If the multimeter detects a malfunction and displays the corresponding indicator on the display, the device being tested is prohibited from being used and must be returned for service or repair, or even completely disposed of.

Testing with a device - a megammeter - is carried out according to the same principle as with a multimeter.

Current testing

To begin with, we determine what kind of current flows in the circuit - alternating or direct. The choice of the socket for the black probe, from the “10 A” or “VΩmA” options, is made after specifying the approximate parameters in Amperes. The procedure is largely identical to the one discussed above. If, after connecting to the connector with the maximum current value, the display shows a significantly lower value, place the plug in another socket. When re-displaying smaller parameters, we stop at the range with a lower amperage.

It is important to remember that the connection of the device in the circuit in this case is also carried out exclusively in parallel

How to independently check current leakage using a household multimeter or an indicator screwdriver

Professional electricians quite often encounter current leakage when inspecting electrical wiring, especially old wiring, electrical appliances of poor quality and other electrical equipment. The problem of leakage current is also quite common in the operation of cars and causes rapid discharge of the battery. This article will discuss actions to identify electricity leaks in relation to a 220V home network, but there are no fundamental differences between it and a car electrical network.

The reasons for current leakage are quite commonplace; over time, the protective insulation of the wire wears out and its characteristics change. If the wiring is used incorrectly, kinks, cracks, and abrasions appear on the wire insulation. The main task of insulating wiring and conductive elements is to protect people from electric shock and prevent leakage of electricity.

Even new electrical appliances and wiring have small current leaks. Almost any insulation is not ideal, especially for cheap cables in the low price category. Cheap electrical wiring, as a rule, has microcracks from the factory, it is less resistant to temperature and humidity changes, and small thickness defects are often found. Improper operation, overheating of the wire at loads exceeding the design ones - all this damages the insulation and leads to current leakage.

Current leakage can be determined by the following characteristic signs: touching the body of an electrical appliance, a wall, or a pipeline causes a slight tingling sensation in the fingertips. But be careful - a leakage value not exceeding 10 mA is considered safe, but a leakage current of more than 30 mA is deadly.

If you suspect a current leak, you must immediately turn off the power to the room and call professionals. A car with significant leaks is also unsafe to operate. The second sign of current leakage is increased consumption disproportionate to use and, as a result, large electricity bills or discharge of the battery in the car.

What devices can detect electricity leaks?

Electrical laboratory specialists use a professional device for measuring insulation resistance - a megohmmeter. Such devices are quite expensive and are not used in everyday life.

It will be interesting➡ PNP transistor

In many homes or garages, you can find a household multimeter and an indicator screwdriver, and with them you can independently locate the location of a current leak or an electrical appliance with defective insulation.

In order to check the insulation resistance of an electrical appliance using a “household multimeter”, it is necessary to completely disconnect the device being tested from the power supply. On the multimeter, set the regulator to the 20 MΩ position. Touch the pin of the plug with one probe, and the metal part of the electrical appliance with the other, it is better to sequentially in several places. If the number “1” is displayed on the display, then there is no leakage current, the insulation is working properly, indicators on the screen below one indicate leakage currents and the lower the indicator, the greater the leakage current.

If you do not have a multimeter, then you can detect a leak with a regular, even the cheapest indicator screwdriver. Modern indicators are sensitive even to small currents. The algorithm of actions is even simpler; you need to plug in the device and touch the tip of the screwdriver to the metal parts of the device, pipeline or walls in several places. It is better to pre-shade the room; if there is a leakage current, the indicator will light up with varying degrees of intensity.

How to find a leak in electrical wiring or cable

It is impossible to find an insulation defect in hidden wiring without special equipment. In this case, it is necessary to call specialists from an electrical engineering laboratory. When open, you can visually carefully inspect the wire for damage to the insulation, especially in places where the cable comes into contact with walls, risers, and metal parts.

Means of human protection against leakage currents

To protect against current leakage, an RCD or RCBO (difavtomat) is installed in the distribution panel. In the event of a leakage current, even a small one that is dangerous for humans, the RCD or RCBO will instantly cut off the electricity supply. Correct operation of active protective electrical equipment is guaranteed only if there is a working ground. It is also very important to choose high-quality automation and test it. All this can be performed by specialists from our electrical measuring laboratory. Don't skimp on your safety!

How to find an energy consumer?

Further search for current leakage in the car is carried out using the fuse box (usually installed under the hood near the windshield). The procedure is as follows:

Leave the ammeter connected to the battery terminals and remove the fuse box cover.
Alternately pulling out the fuses from their sockets, monitor the readings on the multimeter display. If the manipulation does not produce results and the current value remains the same, insert the element back into the socket and move on to the next one.
When you notice a drop in current to normal, find out which electrical appliances are “hanging” on the circuit of the pulled fuse. Look for the “culprit” using the method of elimination, checking each consumer separately.

Example: a high-consumption circuit powers 3 pieces of equipment - a cigarette lighter, a rear window defroster and a courtesy lamp.
It is not difficult to deal with the cigarette lighter and the light bulb - you need to turn off these devices and measure the current at the relay contacts that close the heater circuit. If the readings are higher than normal, disconnect the heating element connector and try replacing the relay. Several consumers are powered directly from the battery, bypassing the fuse box. This includes the electronic engine control unit, starter and generator. If manipulations with fuse links do not bring results and the display readings have not changed, proceed to checking the electric generator:

Disconnect the positive battery terminal.
Unscrew the power wire from the generator and wrap the exposed end with any dielectric (you can use a rag) to avoid a short circuit.
Connect a multimeter to the battery open circuit and check the current value. If the diode bridge in the generator fails, consumption will drop to normal.

Typically, a broken alternator diode causes a large current draw, measured in amperes. The loaded winding acts as an electromagnet, which can be easily checked using a metal key attached to the unit pulley. If the key is pulled, the electric generator is probably faulty and is wasting battery power.

In a similar way, you can measure current leakage in other directly connected circuits. Look at the electrical diagram of the car and disconnect the wires one by one, bypassing the fuse box. If for various reasons the multimeter is missing, try to solve the problem in the following ways:

carefully inspect the inside of the car for a burning light in the glove compartment or trunk;
try with your hand the glass with built-in electric heaters;
check if the seats are heating up;
Turn off the burglar alarm and stereo amplifier completely.

When faced with current leakage and battery discharge, remember what non-standard equipment you happened to install on your car in recent days. The reason probably lies in the incorrect connection of the device.

Current leakage and ways to eliminate it

Since our main audience is readers with little knowledge in the field of electrical engineering, we will limit ourselves to a general description of this phenomenon. The current leakage we are considering today is, at its core, the unwanted flow of electricity along a path that was not intended for it. Most often, movement occurs along pipes, appliance housings, damp plaster and other structural elements in the house.

The causes can be many factors, but in practice, favorable conditions for leakage occur when the insulating layer is damaged. The destruction of its integrity occurs as a result of thermal processes, gradual aging, and mechanical stress. Prolonged exposure of conductors under overload can provoke undesirable moments.

Reason 3 – Business trips

The company's work process involves business meetings, trips to other branches of the company and countries. Employees who frequently travel on business trips may inadvertently become a leading cause of leakage of sensitive company information.

When traveling, such an employee always has a personal or corporate laptop/smartphone with him, which processes protected documents. Equipment may be left in a public place, broken or stolen. If an employee is being surveilled or meeting with executives of a competing company, a lost laptop can become a major source of disclosure of proprietary information.

To prevent such cases, it is important to use encryption systems for the hard drive of those PCs that are issued to employees during business meetings. Even as a result of theft and unauthorized access, the information will be reliably protected, and it will be impossible to hack it without knowing the key.

What malfunctions happen and what are the consequences?

When listing the reasons, we touched a little on the types of electrical damage, but only in general. Now we will take a closer look at possible electrical wiring faults in an apartment and house, presenting them in the form of a list:

Insulation damage, most often mechanical. As a result, a current leak occurs and if an RCD is not installed in the panel, electric shock cannot be avoided. The breakdown can be eliminated by restoring the integrity of the insulation or by replacing the damaged area.
Damage to the current-carrying conductor. Also due to mechanical stress as a result of inaccurate installation, repair work or damage by rodents, which often occurs in a wooden house. Aluminum conductors do not withstand frequent bending, so be careful when repairing such wiring. In general, according to the PUE (chapter 7.1, clause 7.1.34), wiring must be done with copper cable (for more details, see the above paragraph).
Melting of electrical wiring insulation as a result of overheating, which in turn occurs due to incorrectly selected cross-section of conductors or poor contact in strands. This malfunction can lead to a short circuit and fire in the apartment. The fault can only be eliminated by completely replacing the cable with a more powerful one (if the reason is a small cross-section). It is better to replace unreliable twists with connections using WAGO terminals.
Failure of household appliances. If electrical appliances are electrocuted or have a burning smell, you need to urgently disconnect them from the network and start troubleshooting. Otherwise, an electric shock or fire in the electrical wiring in the apartment may occur. We talk about how to repair household appliances with your own hands in the corresponding section of the site.
Poor contact in twists, as well as in places where wires are connected to machines, lamps, sockets, etc. Due to poor contact, heating of the conductors occurs, melting of the insulation and, as a result, fire of the electrical wiring. The malfunction can be eliminated by periodically checking all connections and tightening the clamps. During repairs, remove all twists by connecting the cables with PPE caps, VAGO clamps, sleeves or screw terminal blocks. Twists cannot be used in wiring according to Chapter 2.1. PUE clause 2.1.21.
Failure of sockets and switches. Each electrical product has its own service life, which, as a rule, does not exceed 10 years (usually 6). If the socket is old, then its contacts are most likely already loose and when connecting the plug, overheating may occur, which can cause a fire in the apartment. With an old switch, everything is not so bad, because due to wear and tear of the mechanism, the switch simply stops working (the light does not turn on). We talked about how to repair a light switch in the corresponding article. You can also find a lot of information about repairing sockets.
Burnout of the neutral wire in the panel. A very dangerous electrical fault that can damage the electronics in your home and pose a risk of electrocution. The breakdown can be eliminated only by restoring contact, but the danger can be prevented by installing a voltage control relay in the house or apartment. In this case, you can observe two phases in the sockets. And if the zero burns out in the ASU at home or in the entrance electrical panel, then phase imbalance and excessively high or low voltage in the network are possible.

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Reason 5 – Using complex IT infrastructures

Large corporations use comprehensive systems for protecting proprietary information. Automated systems imply the presence of several security departments and the work of more than five system administrators, whose task is only to maintain the safety of trade secrets.

The complexity of the system is also a risk of leakage, because the simultaneous work of several people is not well-established. For example, one administrator may implement or delete access control rules, while another may forget to enter data on access rights to servers.

When using complex information security systems, it is important to correctly separate all responsibilities and monitor their timely implementation. Otherwise, the created system may harm the company.

In SearchInform CIB you can limit the access of security personnel to certain reports and operations in the system. It is safer to entrust the maximum number of powers to the head of the information security service.

How to carry out in-depth diagnostics

It is worth starting a deep check of current leakage in the car after you inspect the wires. The essence of testing: we disconnect the car device, and then measure the electric current using a multimeter. The sequence of actions is as follows:

disconnect the negative terminal from the battery to place the multimeter;
connect the multimeter to the disconnected battery cable and the negative terminal;
pull out the fuses to open the circuit;
If surges in electric current are observed, we determine which device the fuse belongs to.

You can check for current leakage in a car by making an adapter, which can be used as a blown fuse. We connect the multimeter probes to the homemade adapter. Next, the steps are repeated: we check the circuits separately.

If you have identified a faulty location, you need to find out whether there will be a short circuit. To do this, you need to ring the wires using a multimeter, having previously set the resistance measurement mode.

Important!

Not every device operates with a fuse. Therefore, this method of checking current leakage in a car is not always suitable.

It happens that there is no leak, but the battery dies overnight. This happens due to a negative charge/discharge balance. The battery may simply not be fully charged if you are constantly stuck in traffic jams, trips are always short distances, the car often has to be started and turned off, and the car is used in winter. As a result, the battery fails.

Additional installed music consumes a huge amount of energy. However, this is no longer a current leak in the car.

How is it dangerous?

Electrical insulation cannot be ideal, therefore, during the operation of a consumer of electricity, even if it is in full working order, a current leakage always occurs, the magnitude of which is negligible and does not pose a danger to humans. In case of partial or complete failure of insulation, the values of current leakage increase and can be a serious threat to the health and life of people. Simply put, in the event of loss of insulation resistance when touching the body of an electrical device, cable sheath, plug or socket, water pipe or heating system, wall of a house or apartment, the human body will act as a conductor through which leakage currents will flow into the ground. The consequences can be very sad, even death.

Do not forget that the presence of a leak in the electrical equipment of a house or apartment can affect the consumption of electrical energy. If this phenomenon is present in the wiring, even if all consumers are disconnected, the electric meter will record the electricity consumption.

What does the RCCB (RCD) trigger?

The RCCB is absolutely useless, how did it happen that the currents in its phase and neutral wires began to differ critically. So critical that he decides to turn off the load, which does not comply with the 1st law of old Kirchhoff.

Differential current is evil. He speaks either of poor insulation (this is acceptable to some extent), or of some kind of emergency incident that can lead to a fire and casualties. And against him, the same Germans came up with a VDT, which traders and normal electricians call an RCD.

And to speak correctly, the RCCB operates precisely on differential current.

It turns out that if a person says with a smart look, “The RCD was triggered by a leak,” then:

A long line and many devices were connected to the VDT. At the same time, everything is absolutely correct and normal,
the person did not read my article, and confuses leakage current and differential current,
this man is a plumber whose pipes burst, water spilled onto the VDT with all the ensuing consequences...

Current flow diagram

Diagram of current flow when the motor is stopped.

When the engine is stopped, all electrical equipment of the car is powered from the battery. Some devices operate regardless of the position of the ignition key. Usually this:

anti-theft device;
part of the lighting and sound equipment.

The current flow through them is indicated by the green line. The rest receive power only when the ignition is turned on - the current path is indicated by a blue line.

Knowledge of a specific circuit will be useful when searching for a non-standard consumer - all loads can be divided with one turn of the key.

Diagram of current flow when powered by a generator.

If the engine is running, power is supplied from the generator. The ignition key is closed, and another consumer appears - the battery.

Means of protection

In order to guarantee the elimination of cases of electrical injuries in the house, it is necessary to equip the home electrical network with leakage protection devices, which are currently widely used as residual current devices (RCDs) and differential circuit breakers. We talked about how to choose an RCD based on current in a separate article.

An alternative option is to use a differential circuit breaker, which combines an RCD and a circuit breaker. The difavtomat will also help protect against unfavorable phenomena, because will instantly operate and de-energize the network when danger arises.

To learn more about why you need to use an RCD, watch the video:

So we looked at what current leakage is in an apartment and a house, what are the reasons for its occurrence, as well as protective measures at home. We hope the information was useful and interesting for you!

It will be useful to read:

Source

Electricity leakage into the ground. Why and how to find?

Why is there an electricity leak? How to find it and avoid it?

Electricity leakage into the ground or leakage current into the ground is a dangerous phenomenon that can cause damage to property, and in some cases, human life and health. Essentially, this is the flow of electric current from a phase to the ground, which occurs in a path not intended for this. What exactly is meant by "undesired path" for current. This could be the body of equipment (for example, a washing machine), fittings, wet plaster or soil, a metal pipe, or even the human body.

Of course, the current cannot go into the ground on its own. This requires a full-fledged electrical network, and in particular, the presence of a conductor that is in contact with the ground. This contact can be either accidental or intentional (grounding electrodes).

Finding a wiring problem

A leak in the hidden wiring of a house or apartment can cause electric shock when plastering walls or wallpapering. How to detect it without involving specialists and using special devices. There is a proven way to check for leaks in hidden wiring in a house or apartment using a transistor radio that has medium-wave and long-wave reception ranges. Before checking, you must turn off all electrical consumers. Next, you need to walk with the receiver, pre-tuned to a frequency on which there are no radio stations broadcast, in close proximity to the walls where the wiring is laid. As you approach the problem area, the receiver's speaker will begin to make a characteristic noise.

Other reasons for battery discharge

What to do if the driver measures the current consumption and it does not exceed the norm? As mentioned above, difficult starting after a long period of parking may not be caused by leakage currents. Some of the most common causes of this problem may include:

High battery self-discharge.
Generator malfunction.

Testing the battery for self-discharge

To determine the condition of the battery, you need to remove it from the car and wipe it clean with a rag soaked first in a solution of baking soda, then in water.
If the battery is serviceable, you need to check the density and electrolyte level in each section (there are only 6 of them). The battery is then fully charged by the mains charger to normal voltage (12.7 V without load). We recommend: Marking and release date of Varta battery

All that remains is to leave the unconnected battery for several days and then measure the voltage at the terminals again. If the voltage loss is more than 0.2 V, then the problem is in the battery. You will have to buy a new battery or try to restore the damaged one, at least temporarily, by contacting the appropriate specialists. If the battery “holds”, then either the problem has been eliminated (for example, water was added to semi-dry jars), or the problem is different.