Electricity tripping - no discernible cause

pollypenny

Just written a long post when it went again!

Came home to find electricity tripped on Friday.

It went 3 times on Saturday - even after unplugging the fridge, which was my main suspect.

Today it has gone off 6 times - when nothing is on and/or when appliances in various parts of the house are on. First time in the early hours, clock had gone off.


Can anyone suggest what the problem is? Called an electrician a few weeks ago when it went twice - after a cursory look at the point he said it might be the fridge.


Edit: a second problem is that the boiler seems unable to switch off when power is restored. This is in spite of the clock showing the correct time and the timer programme being ok. It comes on, but was bubbling away at 1 am when I check it.

shandypants5

is it a particular trip tripping? or the big main one at the end?

The main one is usually an "earth lakage detector thats designed to turn off before a person gets a fatal electric shock.

They are very sensitive to damp.

I would be looking for a leaky pipe or a leaky washing machine causing damp wires.

baldelectrician

pollypenny wrote: »

Called an electrician a few weeks ago when it went twice - after a cursory look at the point he said it might be the fridge.

Get a better electrician. One that has meters (megger) and knows how to use them

If he thought it was an appliance he could have tested them individually

pollypenny

It's one of the smaller ones, to right of central 'block'.

It's the only one which has no writing on it, part from the big red ones at the end.

Can built in fridges leak?

I am very grateful for your help, shandy pants.

Pol x

pollypenny

baldelectrician wrote: »

Get a better electrician. One that has meters (megger) and knows how to use them

If he thought it was an appliance he could have tested them individually

Quite!

We have to find a new good one. Our old regular has finally retired, having had more come-backs than Frank Sinatra!

shandypants5

Bald electrician is right it sounds like you need a qualified sparky on the job.

The smaller trips are usually only tripped by "overloaded" circuits.

when the power trips from one of those only part of the house will go off.
it depends how your house is wired but sometimes the sockets upstairs will be on a seperate trip to the downstairs sockets.
Or maybe you have 2 lighting circuits.

For eg, my house has 2 trips for the sockets (upstairs / downstairs) and then another trip for all the lights, and then a trip for the cooker and another for the immersion heater.

When the power goes off run round the house plugging a lamp in to see which sockets are dead, then unplug everything from those sockets only to see if you can diagnose a faulty appliance.

gas4you

Perhaps the heating fault is related?

This needs checking. I take it the heating is on the circuit that is tripping?

pollypenny

Took the washing machine plug out after your advice, shandy. Now fridge and washer are off.

So far so good.

Will have to take the kickboard off the kitchen to take washer out and check if all ok tomorrow.

Thanks for idea of the lamp.

It's a big bungalow and there are a few circuits, with the boiler on the one that is tripping.

OH, I wish our old electrician's firm had not been taken over.

Really appreciate your trouble in advising me.

pollypenny

No trouble last night, so plugged fridge back in today. Bulb bright, rather than dull as before.

OH has taken kickboard off from the unit on the washing machine side and shone a torch underneath. We can't see any sign of dampness.

shandypants5

pollypenny wrote: »

No trouble last night, so plugged fridge back in today. Bulb bright, rather than dull as before.

OH has taken kickboard off from the unit on the washing machine side and shone a torch underneath. We can't see any sign of dampness.

It probably wont be caused by damp. Damp electrics tends to set of the big main breaker if you have a modern breaker board.

The smaller trips are generally set off by a "real" electrical problem making the circuit draw too much power and get hot.

The fact that the frige light has got brighter is a worry, and the electrician mentioned that he thought it could be a faulty fridge.

I would take the fridge plug apart and check all the wires are tight in the plug. (unplug it first)
Allso check that the cable is not damaged or pinched anywhere.

If that all looks ok then there may be a fault inside the fridge, they have a motor in them that can wear out and cause a short circuit fault.
Thats not something you could fix yourself though.

stephen25uk

shandypants5 wrote: »

It probably wont be caused by damp. Damp electrics tends to set of the big main breaker if you have a modern breaker board.

The smaller trips are generally set off by a "real" electrical problem making the circuit draw too much power and get hot.

The fact that the frige light has got brighter is a worry, and the electrician mentioned that he thought it could be a faulty fridge.

I would take the fridge plug apart and check all the wires are tight in the plug. (unplug it first)
Allso check that the cable is not damaged or pinched anywhere.

If that all looks ok then there may be a fault inside the fridge, they have a motor in them that can wear out and cause a short circuit fault.
Thats not something you could fix yourself though.

mate are you an electrician,cause you are totally wrong in some of the stuff your saying,firstly they are call MCB mini circuit breakers not trips,secondly a damp or wet electrical socket or a device not working correctly should only trip the MCB of the socket its connected to not the main switch on CU...that powers every thing on the board.

what needs to happen is an electrician needs to come round (proper one) and identify what circuit is what, what is conected to each each circuit,and then check to see the the correct amp of MCB is fitted acording to load on it,i would always try to have the boiler on its own MCB although not needed it helps in the future if you need to isolate it down the line,also your cooker should have its own RCD