The electrical system of the house: let's give it the "automatic reset" circuit breaker

Why deal with the unwelcome thrill of the detached refrigerator when you return from vacation, with the consequent obligation to reclaim the contents and perhaps the entire kitchen? And woe to you if you don't do everything to avoid the failure of the surveillance cameras or the entire alarm system while we are away for our well-deserved rest. To put a hand there is more often than you think the lifesaving differential of our electrical system. Which keeps a good watch and at the slightest sign of malfunction disconnects everything.

Benedetto life saver: it neutralizes the errors of when we are at home but intervenes, in the name of maximum safety, even when it "feels" a minimal defect perhaps of a few hundredths of a second, a dispersion created by a small patch of humidity, a microscopic return to our electrical grid of the stresses on the city grid caused by a lightning strike, or even a momentary voltage problem in the neighborhood. If we are at home, we try to reattach the switch, and if it doesn't happen again in the following minutes, we have the almost mathematical certainty that our system is OK and that the problem was caused by a passing external event. But what if we're not at home? Or if we are blissfully on vacation? The troubles can be, in fact, relevant.

Truly a solution for everyone

The solution is called automatic reset differential. An intelligent life-saving differential, a small computer enclosed in the space of a switch, which tries a few times (typically three) to automatically raise the lever which restores the contacts to "give up" only when it probably has understood that the defect does not come from outside but it is actually attributable to our electrical system, which in that case (but only in that case) must be kept disconnected pending a repair of the defect. In this case, the defect to be remedied is also announced with an acoustic signal, typically a prolonged and repeated beep.

The beauty is that the automatic reset differential and designed exactly like a differential switch: same connections, same connection methods, identical basic functions. With the only difference, which almost never represents a problem, of the horizontal footprint on your electrical panel: in the sequence of modules side by side in the track that collects our circuit breakers, the automatic reset residual current device will typically occupy twice the space compared to a traditional residual current device . But this, we repeat, is almost never a problem, because our electrical panel (the container that neatly collects the switches that control the various areas of the house) usually has additional spaces available. And if it doesn't have them, it can easily be remedied with an expansion box to be installed next to it.

How it's done

As we have said, the automatic reset differential looks a lot like a normal circuit breaker and can even be integrated with this. In fact, there are various versions. Mainly three: an additional module that makes our existing circuit breaker reset automatically, a device that completely replaces the circuit breaker and, last news, an automatic reset circuit breaker controllable from the outside via the web, or from a personal computer or directly from a smartphone with an app, and even through the last cry of robotics represented by the voice-controlled devices Google Home and Alexa (Amazon).

The device is offered by the main electrical and electronic component companies and it is not necessary to necessarily choose an example of the same brand as the one shown on the other components of our electrical system. In fact, these comply with very precise and absolutely standards and regulations interoperable with each other. The only mandatory precaution is to choose the sensibility of the life saver analogues to the one it will replace, which is assumed to have been correctly calibrated by whoever installed and certified the electrical system.

How to install

Speaking of certifications and installation correctness: those with a minimum of manual skills and basic knowledge can theoretically also proceed on their own. Be aware, however, that the legislation requires interventions on the electrical system only authorized personnel able to certify the work. This must be done not only for the installation but also for each subsequent modification of the system, therefore also in the case of replacing a traditional differential with an automatic reset device. It is a good thing that this is the case, given the delicacy of each intervention on the systems: electricity, gas but also water.

Having said that, the replacement is really a matter of a few minutes, especially if our electrical panel has space for at least one additional module to be obtained next to the old circuit breaker. However, each model is equipped with pretty detailed instructionsunderstandable even by non-professionals.

In the case of a device with the Wi-Fi connection function and control via the Web there will naturally be one more step, as for any device to be integrated into our home telematic network: activation of the App to download from Google Play or Play Store ( in the case of an Apple or Android smartphone), registering with the management portal, connecting with our credentials to the Wi-Fi network, configuring the functions. These, in the case of Wi-Fi automatic reset deviceshave many options. Not only the possibility of disconnecting and reconnecting the electrical system of the house too remotely, but also that of initiating remote checks to verify, for example, that there are no current absorptions with relative consumption that should not exist during our absence.

There are also Wi-Fi devices that even allow you to adjust the intervention sensitivity of life-saving by increasing or decreasing the tolerance, compared for example to external events that so many problems can create. But our advice in this case is to leave the tolerance unchanged with respect to the nominal one of the lifesaver which the new differential has taken its place.

How much

The automatic reset circuit breaker is easily found on sale on the main e-commerce sites at discounted prices compared to the price list. In this case, they range from around 80 euros for the simplest model (the module that automates the normal differential, which in this case should be of the same brand to avoid any small mechanical differences between the two modules) to around 160 euros of the device that also has the Wi-Fi function, with particularly sophisticated specimens that can even reach the threshold of 300 euros. To this we must add the costs for the installation, which can probably range from 50 to 100 euros, including a general check of the electrical system which is in any case a good idea to do every few years. But here is an excellent additional reason to proceed with the operation: here too, as with many home maintenance operations, the taxman recognizes us a deduction 50% divided over 10 years for the expense incurred.