Mains trips randomly

fluffpot

pcgtron wrote: »

Any idea of a rough price of changing the board?

It will depend on where you are but I would allow a day to test and rectify any faults and a day to do the board and earth bonds to gas and water if needed. BTW it looks like you only have 1 socket circuit (labelled kitchen ring)?

A good quality board with all rcbo's will be over £200

Day rates vary.... in London you'd be looking at £250 to £300

cyclonebri1

jack_pott wrote: »

I think it's well worth changing the main RCD first. When they're old and knackered they can start dropping out at random for no reason at all.

I wouldn't be inclined to read too much into the fact that it's only the main breaker going either. If there's a transient surge causing the problem, it may be the fastest acting breaker that drops out first, not necessarily the one feeding the individual circuit. If transients are large enough and sudden enough, the effects can be quite peculiar sometimes.

If you don't have the expertise or test gear, you're going to be calling someone in anyway, so it will be for them to sort out.

Also consider putting your freezer on a separate circuit of its own, protected by a good old fashioned fuse, rather than sensitive circuit breakers.

Sound advice, once the circuits have been identified/isolated.:T After simply pulling the plug and forgetting to switch it back in, mine is now hardwired into a fused spur.

I still think the board change is advisable anyway given the limited capacity of the existing. The greater the spread of the circuits, the easier it is to identify faults in future. I'm sure the OP will get that advice when a pre sparky takes a look.

Further up north the cast would be the board plus £150-200, at least from the couple of guys I know in the trade.

[Deleted User]

I've had a separate circuit ever since I first bought a freezer, not that I've ever had a fuse blow in 50 odd years.

If there is an intermittent fault on one of the appliances though, I reckon the OP could be in for a long haul. Intermittent faults can be a PITA, especially when they occur as infrequently as 6 week intervals.

In the mean time the OP might save some food by unplugging as many appliances as possible before leaving the house. You never know, you might even get a bit of tell-tale luck if the breaker drops out just as you plug something back in.

pcgtron

Thanks all. We're in the milton-keynes area so may have a look at some sparkys around there.