Weird Electrical Problem

mparter

For the past 2 nights running, the power to the sockets (not the lights) in our house as went off by itself. This happens whilst were aaslepp, in the small hours.

The first night it happened, I assumed it was an external issue (powercut, etc), but last night, I happened to be getting up to the toilet when it happened. My bedside lamp went off, as did other items powered by socket. I switched on the main light and it worked OK. By the time I came back from the toilet, my bedside lamp was back on again.

The fact that my lights continue to work whilst the sockets are off, leads me to conclude it's an issue with the house as opposed to an external one, but I'm damned if I can figure out what the hell it could be.

There's no extra load on the circuits at that time of night, just the usual stuff, fridge/freezer, Sky box, etc.

Any ideas?

dan.mcl

I would be wary of mice or rats chewing on the cables. My uncle had the same problem (house built in the 70's with a crawlspace under the house) The rats he had were continuously chewing through the cables, the problem got worse at night as there was less human activity and the little gits got braver.
In the end up it was a matter of tracing all of the exposed/semi exposed cable and rewiring it through steel conduits, a very, very unpleasant and dangerous job that I wouldn't go near again. I wouldn't even ask a professional to go anywhere near it!

Then again it might not be rats...

Cagey

Is it only this one socket that goes off ?. It comes back on by itself ?. If this is the case then I would suggest that there is a loose connection at tne socket .

mparter

I haven't done any troubleshooting yet, if it happens again tonight. I'll see if I can narrow it down to something.

Pink.

Hi mparter,

I know absolutely nothing about electricity, but in my house we have different fuses for different circuits (that's probably not what they're called ). So if the fuse is removed from eg the socket circuit, the sockets will not work, but all light switches etc will.

Personally if I had an electrical problem, I would be reluctant to try to solve it without the help of a qualified electrician. As it says in the announcement at the top of this board, being safe is more important than moneysaving.

Pink

[Deleted User]

If it comes back on by itself it must be a loose connection. You need to look for the place which is common to all and only the circuits affected. If this is all the sockets, but nothing else, then the fault is in the consumer unit. Look for a loose contact where the ring is connected to the fuse/mcb.