Electric keeps tripping - possibly found source

silvercar

diystarter7 said:

silvercar said:

Small update. Guy came, but he is only the “make safe” team so just looked and booked it in for for “test and trace” to come tomorrow.

as it happens, from 4pm it’s been behaving albeit with only a few items plugged back in. His throw away comment was that electric car chargers can sometimes cause other circuit breakers to flip, so even though the charger has its own flippy switch, it could cause the others to go. 

Hi OP
Thanks for the update.
That must have cost you a bit of money and then more money. Did they make you aware of that?
I'm sure you did but I always try to get a good idea of a price and scenarios.
Good luck. 

We have a paid for bank account (NatWest Black rewards that gives us annual worldwide travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, home emergency cover, plus other stuff) Costs £31 a month. So I paid nothing for yesterday's call out. 

The situation is now no longer an emergency, last night's guy would have made it safe if necessary, though he didn't do anything in the end.

Today's call out is on me. He is someone I've used before and is the unofficial street's electrician after so many recommendations on our street's whatsapp group.

silvercar

diystarter7 said:

silvercar said:

The electrics policy with my account only covers emergencies, so they won’t now cover trace. I have a local guy coming later today.

In the meantime, I may have found a damp spot - would you think this could be a problem:

Just read this
Great stuff 
Good luck
ps - is that damp?

Yes, must be damp. It's an outside wall that has had damp previously. We re-routed the guttering outside thinking that was the problem, clearly it hasn't solved it. Will make that a topic for another thread at some point.

silvercar

Ben1989 said:

TL;DR

We had a circuit that kept going. Could not figure it out at all. Unplugged everything in the house.

Turned out we had damp (and still have) in our gable wall and had rusted the upstairs light feed conduit and caused the wire to degrade. The only reason I knew this however was because I hammered the plaster off a small section of the wall. Electrician ended up isolating the wire and putting all lights on one circuit with the feed wire coming through internal walls.

Could be similar here. Certainly looks a bit too near the sockets. Problem is that broadband enters the house nearby, so I need a socket somewhere near.

silvercar

In the world of coincidences.

Unscrewing the socket nearest the damp point, he found that the live cable was in contact with the screw holding the facing plate. Gradual wearing of the cable at that place had exposed the actual wires.

victor2

silvercar said:

In the world of coincidences.

Unscrewing the socket nearest the damp point, he found that the live cable was in contact with the screw holding the facing plate. Gradual wearing of the cable at that place had exposed the actual wires.

Let's hope that fixes it!

RedFraggle

Glad you found something. 
In my end terrace I DID have damp causing a similar scenario and had the culprit bit of wiring isolated. As some numpty had fitted a radiator in fron of said socket there was no impact