Electrician - Advice Required

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Can anybody offer some URGENT advice please.

Came home and all power sockets were out. House has a modern fuse board with flip fuses on every circuit and a master Earth Leakage that covers all the sockets. This had flipped. Switcheds back on easy enough.

Well it's gone again 4 times tonight - so i have obviously got a big problem. I've been round and switched off / disconnected everything that's not essential and just waiting.

Is there anything more I can do. How can I find the faulty circuit if it alllows it to go back on ( intermittant fault ? ).What's it most likely to be a s it's not blowing the fuses on the board ot the appliance.

You used to be able to get a plug thing to put in the sockets to test them, but how do I determine which appliance is faulty if that's what it is?

I'll come back on a bit later ( computer has powered down with it 3 times, but it's not the computer causing it ).

Any advice please?

[eXOBeX]

Not necessarily a live-to-earth fault, could be neutral-to-earth which'll also trip the RCD (should be the same current flowing through live as neutral, if either leak to earth there'll be an imbalance).

Ones to check:-

Cooker (does one hotplate or section trip the breaker?)

Kettle (has the lead or socket been allowed to get wet?)

Shower, washing machine, dishwasher, tumble dryer (water leakage causing it to trip at certain stages/settings?)

Boiler (does it trip when the thermostat switches the boiler or pump on?)

Don't just switch things off - UNPLUG them. Many sockets only have single-pole switches that switch the live but not the neutral, neutral-to-earth faults on appliances connected to these would still trip the RCD.

[Parthiban]

We had the exact same thing happen a few years ago, and found it to be caused by an exterior light, that had a loose wire. It happened after some heavy rain, and basically water had got in and was shorting it.

After the rain today, might be worth checking your exterior electrics, although it could be anything causing it at the end of the day.

[ROYT]

Your on the right track........write down everything plugged in and check for damp anywhere,electric kettle?,central heating pump?.....RCD's trip out for the least thing, it's just a case of eliminating appliances like you were doing, until you hit the faulty one......unless someone has a gadget.......

In our house, even with the power switched off ,the RCD trips if you short any wires

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Thanks guys.

I did actually unplug things I didn't want on. I'd eliminatad kettle and a few other obvious ones. removed thos pesky air freshener fan plug ins, hoped that the fish tank may have blown it more permanently. Remebered the up and over garage door ( all dry in there ) and then tried what Parthiban had problems with. I've got an outside light that's wired through a timer into a 13 amp socket. Bulb stays on 20 watt when tiner on and 60 watt on a PIR - so switched that off for tonight. So far it's been nearly an hour and all is working.

Also remembered a buzzer thing that used to be fitted to a freezer, it went off if the power went. So I've out a Battery in that and plugged it in the landing. If the power goes tonight while I'm in bed at leat I'll know !! So I can sort the alram and heating ............

If it's still OK this time tomorrow I'll plug everything back in & switch on apart from the security light .... and try again. Looks like I may have to strip it down over the weekend ( make sure it's dry ) and put a 3 amp fuse in, I guess it's probably 13 amp in there ( shakes head ) .

[Bazza]

fault finding ......a nightmare

can you recall what appliances were on ?

washing machines are very common for tripping elcb/rccd`s

if in use check at what stage in the program it was at when tripping occurs,

whats the weather like ?

although damp/wet faults tend to remain until dry

isolation of appliances is the best method of tracing the fault

unlikely to be a wiring fault as they tend to be constant, unless you can recall doing the same thing every time it trips, ie: walking on a loose floorboard

very unlikely to be a faulty elcb/rccd unit

looking like a neutral to earth fault if no mcb`s are tripping

appliance testers can test the appliances, but if the appliances run through a cycle it may not find the fault

[johnboy]

Thanks guys.

I did actually unplug things I didn't want on. I'd eliminatad kettle and a few other obvious ones. removed thos pesky air freshener fan plug ins, hoped that the fish tank may have blown it more permanently. Remebered the up and over garage door ( all dry in there ) and then tried what Parthiban had problems with. I've got an outside light that's wired through a timer into a 13 amp socket. Bulb stays on 20 watt when tiner on and 60 watt on a PIR - so switched that off for tonight. So far it's been nearly an hour and all is working.

Also remembered a buzzer thing that used to be fitted to a freezer, it went off if the power went. So I've out a battery in that and plugged it in the landing. If the power goes tonight while I'm in bed at leat I'll know !! So I can sort the alram and heating ............

If it's still OK this time tomorrow I'll plug everything back in & switch on apart from the security light .... and try again. Looks like I may have to strip it down over the weekend ( make sure it's dry ) and put a 3 amp fuse in, I guess it's probably 13 amp in there ( shakes head ) .

i noticed you said you have a fish tank, i had a similar problem a little while ago and it was the heater for my fish tank causing the problem, bought a new heater, problem solved.

hope this helps

john

[Steve ( West Mids )]

It seems like it is the outside light, no problems for 21 hours. I phoned my answerphone from work today to make sure the power was still on :)