Earth breaker effect on powerline communication

Earth breaker switches or circuit breakers can have a significant impact on the powerline communication, whether at low frequency (for controlling home automation equipment) or at high frequency (for transporting an Ethernet connection). The worst measured is the Debflex 707471. It causes a reduction in range of almost 500m. To this diminution must be added all the electrical appliances on the line. This attenuation was performed at the PLC frequency used by the Wattcubes . The influence is equivalent on higher frequencies used by homeplug as such as Devolo products.

There are no accurate rules even if the AC curves generally attenuate much more. The attenuation is essentially due to the construction of the differential itself. The phenomenon is the same for high-end or low-end products

The solution is to use a phase coupler

See also our application note about this