Home power surges

portchieboy

Hi

Since Xmas, we have been having an intermittent problem with the fuse-board, where the surge trip switch keeps going off, though none of the individual 'fuses' are tripping.

It can be at any time, mornings or evenings, and whether, for example the heating is on or off. It does not seem to co-incide with any particular appliance benig used, though it does maybe trip a few seconds after something has been switched on, a light or a kettle maybe.

There is nothing on auto, like thermostats etc., that is working at the same time. It tends to happen once or twice in succesion, maybe 10/15 minutes in between, then not again for a week or two.

Has any bright spark out there got an idea, to save me calling an electrician and paying an arm, and a leg or two?

Many thanks.

aussielle

It sounds like you've got an earth fault. If it's not one of your appliances, there might be something wrong with a switch on a socket or a socket outlet, where you plug into occasionally and that would explain why it's not happening all the time.

It's possible to eliminate some possible causes yourself by starting with your appliances, but involves trial and elimination, possibly time consuming..


Make sure everything is switched off to start with, then start switching on your appliances one by one until it trips..

Say it happened when you plugged the iron in and you always use it in the kitchen, try it in a bedroom. If it doesn't trip this time, but always does so in the kitchen, then there maybe a fault with the circuit for your kitchen. If it trips in both rooms, then there's probably something wrong with the iron.

This might not solve your problem but it'll eliminate a lot of things and if you do have to call someone out, you'll be able to tell them that all your appliances are ok, hopefully saving you some money

Post back and let us know what happens, there might be further suggestions.

mepone9

Is this device that keeps tripping an RCD? If so, it sounds to me as if this is faulty (causing nuisance trips) best way to find out is get it tested by an electrician. I would check all your appliances first to rule them out.

portchieboy

Aussielle

Thanks for the help.

Problem is, that this only happens twice or so a month, so it is so difficult to isolate down to a particular appliance.

Mepone could have the answer that the RCD, built in to the fuse box could be playing up.

I think I can only wait and see if it gets worse?

Thanks

aussielle

portchieboy wrote:

I think I can only wait and see if it gets worse?

By worse, lets hope that doesn't mean the worst case senario..fire or potentially fatal electric shock. :eek:

You can't have too many appliances in your house, it'd only take 10 mins or so to go and turn them all on..

robowen

asked my f-in-law about this one, he's a ex leccy inspector, he would change the rcd first, if problem continues, then you should get someone in to test your electrics. They have gadgets these days to test your appliances and should find the fault fairly quickly for you.

beefster

£50 for a new RCD and then that is not at fault...........!????????

Test your appliances first. One of them is far more likly to be the cause. The RCD is there to protect you from shock and when tripping is doing just that by isolating the supply when a fault is detected.
Old fridges are a common problem as the compressors cause tripping as the oil in them breaks down over the years. Lighting and pumps in ponds, exterior lighting / sockets etc can cause tripping due to water ingress / damp.

Its a pain when this happens - been there myself and finally traced it to my fish pond pump after about 3 months of aggro!

robby-01

The only way to be sure is to get the circuits that are protected by the RCD checked out.Depending on the number of circuits a good sparky should be able to do that in a couple of hours.It is not a job for a novice but neither is changing the rcd itself.Rcd's do go faulty but there is no point changing it without first checking out the wiring and the operation of the switch itself.
It sounds like a minor wiring fault poss neutral to earth a good spark should be able to locate it and isolate it without much trouble.If the fault is on the wiring it usually gets worse over time.It will be hard to get a spark to give you fixed quote for fault finding just pin him down to an hourly rate .When he finds the fault get a fixed price of him for the repair and get a certificate for the testing.
hope that helps .