Electric Trip Switch

wherediditallgothen

The main electricity trip switch at home has tripped and now won't go back up. Even with all the individual circuit trip switches in the off position.

I am at work, and my wife has been doing some wallpaper removing with a steamer in our spare room. Is it possible that some water has got in somewhere and cut everything out? If that's the case do we just need to wait until it dries out? Or is it a sign of a bigger (and potentially pricey) problem?

Thanks

HappyMJ

What do you mean won't go back up? If my house still has something dangerous connected...such as my toasted sandwich maker with water in it shorting it to ground....must remember not to immerse it in water to clean it....anyway... I can still push it up and it goes off straight away.

fluffpot

Get her to unplug the steamer and then try it - it could be that it's faulty

wherediditallgothen

HappyMJ wrote: »

What do you mean won't go back up? If my house still has something dangerous connected...such as my toasted sandwich maker with water in it shorting it to ground....must remember not to immerse it in water to clean it....anyway... I can still push it up and it goes off straight away.

That's what I meant. When pushed up the trip switch goes straight back down. Chances are that there is some water that has found it's way into the plug, or that the steamer is faulty.

fwor

I hate to say it, but it does sound like there is a more serious issue somewhere, unless your wife isn't accurately describing what she is doing.

If all of the MCBs in the consumer unit are switched off then a water-soaked mains plug somewhere in the house ~cannot~ trip the main switch - because if the wiring is correct there will be no connected circuits.

wherediditallgothen

fwor wrote: »

I hate to say it, but it does sound like there is a more serious issue somewhere, unless your wife isn't accurately describing what she is doing.

If all of the MCBs in the consumer unit are switched off then a water-soaked mains plug somewhere in the house ~cannot~ trip the main switch - because if the wiring is correct there will be no connected circuits.

I hate to hear it, but that's what I was thinking. I am not sure if everything was turned off at the time (for the simple reason that I wasn't there to see it myself).

We now have full lighting throughout, and the sockets downstairs work, but the upstairs ones still won't work apparently. Whether that is that they don't work or it's a case that my wife is too wary to try to ascertain if they work is another thing.

We had someone out to check the electrics not so long ago, and they said everything was fine. Mind you we still haven't had an invoice from them, after chasing them up multiple times, so I don't trust their work really if they can't get their finger out enough to invoice someone.

I'm now more convinced than ever that we have some electrical issues, so once I've had a gander with my own eyes I'll be in touch with an electrician.

muckybutt

fwor wrote: »

I hate to say it, but it does sound like there is a more serious issue somewhere, unless your wife isn't accurately describing what she is doing.

If all of the MCBs in the consumer unit are switched off then a water-soaked mains plug somewhere in the house ~cannot~ trip the main switch - because if the wiring is correct there will be no connected circuits.

WRONG !

The main switch sounds like its an RCD, even with all the mcb's in the off position the RCD can still trip if there is a neutral - earth fault.

muckybutt

Op when your electrics trip out like that, the easyiest way to try and track down the fault is.
From the start
1) Turn all MCB's and the main switch off.
2) Try turning the RCD main switch back on, if this stays on then turn the mcbs on one by one., until the RCD trips out which could identify a faulty circuit.
2a) If the RCD trips straight away before the mcbs are turned on then you need to unplug every item plugged into your sockets. Then try resetting the RCD, if it stays in then you have a faulty piece of electrical equipment. Then all you need to do is plug them in one by one until it trips again.

Sometimes you do get nusance tripping with RCD's but it does sound like theres a dodgy piece of equipment. If it was the wiring then it would be constantly tripping.

fwor

muckybutt wrote: »

WRONG !

The main switch sounds like its an RCD, even with all the mcb's in the off position the RCD can still trip if there is a neutral - earth fault.

I'm sure you must have thought this through better than I have, but here's my rationale: The RCD will only trip if it detects a difference in current flow between live and neutral.

If the live feed to all circuits is disconnected, there ~cannot~ be a difference in flow, so even a neutral-earth fault will not trip the RCD.

I'd be interested to hear your explanation of why it could (and would be relieved on the part of the OP at the same time if it is a simple matter of a wet plug).

muckybutt

fwor wrote: »

I'm sure you must have thought this through better than I have, but here's my rationale: The RCD will only trip if it detects a difference in current flow between live and neutral.

If the live feed to all circuits is disconnected, there ~cannot~ be a difference in flow, so even a neutral-earth fault will not trip the RCD.

I'd be interested to hear your explanation of why it could (and would be relieved on the part of the OP at the same time if it is a simple matter of a wet plug).

Neutral - earth faults will always trip an RCD because the RCD is sencing an imbalance, it makes no difference if the mcbs are on or off. For instance you could have all the power on in the house, have an extension lead running outside to say a hedge trimmer, the extension lead can be turned off at the plug so ther is no power in the lead yet the millisecond you cut that lead it will trip the RCD because it has detected that imbalance between N - E, it sees that as a prospective fault and thus cuts the power.

Trust me ive been a sparky 20+ odd years and have come across this problem 100's of times.

DVardysShadow

fwor wrote: »

I'm sure you must have thought this through better than I have, but here's my rationale: The RCD will only trip if it detects a difference in current flow between live and neutral.

If the live feed to all circuits is disconnected, there ~cannot~ be a difference in flow, so even a neutral-earth fault will not trip the RCD.

I'd be interested to hear your explanation of why it could (and would be relieved on the part of the OP at the same time if it is a simple matter of a wet plug).

Oh yes there can be a difference in flow. Muckbutt is right on this one. The Neutral is very rarely at exactly the same voltage as the general mass of the Earth. If OP's wife has caused a leakage path between Neutral and Earth with the steaming, then a current will flow and the RCD will trip because the Neutral current to Earth is not matched by the same current in via the Line.