Mobile Charger - Amps Changed?

[moa999]

Huh? Where do you see “bare wire everywhere”? In Australia, all cabling that is accessible must be in a conduit.

I meant behind the wall, and in less accessible areas like attics (maybe the rules have changed for that?)

 

[Stealthmatt]

As an electrician, most 15A sockets are wired to dedicated circuit breaker in the SB. However, there is no actual requirement to do so. It's simply the fact that if you are installing a 15A socket, there must be an appliance plugging into it thats likely to draw 15A and you are going to wire it assuming that that current will be continuous. It's more than likely that the cabling, all things being equal, will still just be 2.5mm2 unless a large distance is invloved. Plugging in something that draws 15A on a socket that was originally wired for 10A is unlikely to cause a safety issue as generally, all outlets are wired in minimum 2.5mm2 and protected by a CB that is rated for the 2.5mm2 cable. After all, half a house with 15 double 10A outlets is still generally wired to one 16 or 20A CB.

Obviously if there are other things on the circuit, you will get nusiance overcurrent tripping.

And, not meaning to be annoying, but in Australia, there is no electrical "Code". Each state has an Electrical Act, from which how to follow it are defined in each states "Electrical Regulations", each Electrical Regulation refers technical details to the Australian & New Zealand Standard AS/NZS:3000, known as the "Wiring Rules". Australian wiring rules have a lot less specifics about what you can and can't do unlike what I read in the US. We appear to maintain electrical safety by rules based on formulas while leaving actual "ingenunity" up to the electrician and electrical engineers. For instance, rather that checking what circuit breaker must be used with what cable, I would work out what the maximum current draw will be, pick a circuit breaker above that, then check what size cable will flow the current of the CB (After all, the CB protects the cable, not the appliance), check the length of the run to make sure voltage drop isn't an issue and a bigger cable required for that, then check the fault loop impeedance. All of this is up to me, no particular circuit breaker is written in the wiring rules. Obviously this is an over simplification, but gives a good idea of how our system works.

Thanks for your reply - yeah the circuit is 2.5mm2 cable (protected by 20amp RCBO) with about 4 x double 10AMP outlets. One of the outlets happens to be near the garage and it has been replaced with a 15AMP single outlet.

I was under the impression that regulations stated a 15amp socket needed to be a dedicated circuit back to the SB. However, that is interesting if it is not. Sparkies always told me they needed to run a dedicated circuit for 15amp plugs.

Anyways these outlets don't get used much only by a tv and computer so will be more than fine for the Tesla and should trip.

 

[Zoltrix77]

Huh? Where do you see “bare wire everywhere”? In Australia, all cabling that is accessible must be in a conduit.

Yeah, OP must mean bare "cable". Cable that is accessible doesn't have to be in conduit, it only has to be in conduit if its likely to be subject to mechanical damage. Most just take this if you generally can touch it with your hand in normal settings. You can clip cable across a carport joist or metail joist with purlin clips with no conduit because its unlikely to be disturbed in normal use. There is a trend; myself included to use more conduit only because it looks better.

In a factory setting where things are being banged around, just using plastic conduit would not be enough. So you would upgrade to steel. Again its one of those things in our rules, there is no rule that says one MUST use a specific type of wiring enclusre in each setting.