Immersion Heater tripping electricity?

Jo.G

We were woken up at 2am by the house alarm going off and all the power to the sockets to the house had also gone.
We had an RCD Consumer unit (I think that's what its called) fitted a few years ago and the 'socket' switch was off. I tried to switch it back on and re-set it but it wouldn't work.
In the end I switched all the wall sockets off and went back to bed.
I managed to to reset the socket switch when I got up this morning and everything appears to be working normally. We do not have a gas supply so all our heating is via Economy 7 and storage heaters. The storage heaters are warm this morning and don't appear to have been affected. The only other thing that is timed to come on during the night is the immersion heater. Could the immersion heater be the problem? Any ideas on what would have caused the immersion heater to do this?

TIA

Wywth

Jo.G wrote: »

We were woken up at 2am by the house alarm going off and all the power to the sockets to the house had also gone.
We had an RCD Consumer unit (I think that's what its called) fitted a few years ago and the 'socket' switch was off. I tried to switch it back on and re-set it but it wouldn't work.
In the end I switched all the wall sockets off and went back to bed.
I managed to to reset the socket switch when I got up this morning and everything appears to be working normally. We do not have a gas supply so all our heating is via Economy 7 and storage heaters. The storage heaters are warm this morning and don't appear to have been affected. The only other thing that is timed to come on during the night is the immersion heater. Could the immersion heater be the problem? Any ideas on what would have caused the immersion heater to do this?

TIA

So presumably you have no fridge, no phone that is plugged in, no appliances on standby like a TV, set top box, dvd recorder, etc? What about your alarm? Presumably that is plugged in too?

So first you need to ensure it is the immersion heater, and if so, perhaps it's broke? Get a specialist in to check. Expect to pay about £70+VAT for call out and first 30 minutes labour. Expect the job to last at least 31 minutes

Edit: Actually, if it's a low side entry heater, expect it to take a couple of hours mostly spent watching the water drain away whilst drinking plentiful cups of your tea. But the £70 should be long enough to find the fault and tell you the cost of repair. The heating element itself is only about £20 ... but the labour ... :eek:

Jo.G

Thanks Wywth. I did have other things plugged in, but as everything else has been switched back on this morning and the electricity hasn't tripped again, I thought it more likely to be something that only comes on during the during the Economy7 hours. Although knowing very little about anything electrical I may be completely wrong.
So does an immersion heater come under the remit of any electrician, or do I need to look for a someone who specialises in plumbing & electrics?

Wywth

The draining of the tank is plumbing.

The wiring of the immersion is electrical.

If you call any reputable plumbing and heating engineer I'm sure they will be able to help you if you want the immersion heater replaced

But your immersion heater shouldn't cause any issues with your socket ring main, unless your immersion is plugged into your socket ring main.

Jo.G

Thanks Wywth. I'll look on my councils Good Trader scheme and find someone to come out and find the problem.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Jo.G wrote: »

Thanks Wywth. I'll look on my councils Good Trader scheme and find someone to come out and find the problem.

- which water heater controller do you have ? - does it look like this - or like this one ?

- the water & night store heaters are switched on by a radio signal out of your control
- the water radial or ring & night store heaters run on a 20a exclusive radial circuit
- your lights, 13a sockets, and cooker ring also run on their own exclusive radial circuits / ring

I'd start with the water heating controller itself rather than the elements / stats in the cylinder.

Jo.G

We had one with the clock type dial replaced with a digital one like in the second link about 5 years ago.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Jo.G wrote: »

We had one with the clock type dial replaced with a digital one like in the second link about 5 years ago.

I expected you to say the old analogue one in the first link, however the digital has a reset. Get a sparkie to do a reset first, then test the unit.

Is the front of the display scrambled ? either way the sparkie can hold down the buttons marked “BOOST, MINUS, PLUS & SELECT” si-multaneously - for a re-set. Then the clock should can be adjusted to the correct time of day.

Jo.G

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

I expected you to say the old analogue one in the first link, however the digital has a reset. Get a sparkie to do a reset first, then test the unit.

Is the front of the display scrambled ? either way the sparkie can hold down the buttons marked “BOOST, MINUS, PLUS & SELECT” si-multaneously - for a re-set. Then the clock should can be adjusted to the correct time of day.

The digital display is fine. Another reason why I think it may be something to do the the immersion is because this morning when I'd switched the sockets back on, I noticed the time on the digital display was out by about 15 minutes. Whilst re-setting the time the display minutes flicked through part of the Economy 7 time and the sockets went off again. I'll try and get hold of an electrician, in the mean time, should I switch the immersion heater off at the RCD unit?

macman

You said it tripped the 'socket' MCB. You probably have more than one ring main in the property, unless it's a small flat (most newer houses have two or even three: upstairs, downstairs and kitchen). That should enable you to narrow it down.
It may not be an actual appliance, it could be a circuit cable or socket fault. Why not switch the sockets back on one by one and see if it trips on a particular one?
But I don't understand how, if the immersion heater is on its own dedicated circuit, it can be taking a ring main out as well?
Can you list the circuits as marked on your CU, or post a pic?

Richie-from-the-Boro

Jo.G wrote: »

The digital display is fine. Another reason why I think it may be something to do the the immersion is because this morning when I'd switched the sockets back on, I noticed the time on the digital display was out by about 15 minutes. Whilst re-setting the time the display minutes flicked through part of the Economy 7 time and the sockets went off again. I'll try and get hold of an electrician, in the mean time, should I switch the immersion heater off at the RCD unit?

You should get a sparkie in !

Just pull the RCD & switch the water controller to the OFF position