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wierd electrics
muddyjames:
Lastnight a wierd thing happened. I turned off the tv and came to my pc. I had shut down the radio window about 2 hours before hand but it was stil running. Then I was typng something on Facebook and all the power to all my sockets died. Only the sockets nothing else except the fridge was still working!
I looked at the trip switches and they were all set as normal.
After chatting to Al I turned off all sockets in the house and then tried the test button on the trip and nothing, so I manualy flicked the trip down for the socket circuit. Flicked it back up and all is working again. Tried the test button and it tripped off.
So why didnt the trip flick down and what tripped the 32amp circuit? The only things on were fridge freezer, pc and monitor, dehuimidifier in the caravan and maybe my lodgers pc. So nothing drawing a huge current? ??? ??? ??? Will my house go up in flames???
The boiler also went off as well.
discowoman:
so glad someone else had probelms last night.. we were watching 6th sense, when all 4 walls lights turned off and then came on 1 by 1 - now they are all on 1 switch and are in groups of 2's so cant understand how they did that!
Very spooky..
muddyjames:
well it has just tripped again and I think I have narrowed it down to the caravan.
I turned the caravan off unplugged dehumidifier in it, reset trip, worked ok till I turned caravan back on then it tripped again. So who knows what it could be as I would have thought if it is the caravan it would trip it's own fuse box???
Puzzled now.
muddyjames:
just took the plug out the outside socket and the plug was full of water. That will be the problem then! [-X
SimonHarwood:
--- Quote from: muddyjames on December 14, 2008, 14:50:22 ---just took the plug out the outside socket and the plug was full of water. That will be the problem then! [-X
--- End quote ---
Sounds as if it was the RCD "Residual Current Device" (aka RCCB "Residual Current Circuit Breaker") that tripped, not the MCB "Miniature Circuit Breaker". Each MCB protects one circuit. The RCD protects several circuits. The symptoms described in your original post indicate that the RCD started to trip out but failed to because it was stuck.
MCBs trip out if the circuit that they protect is overloaded or if there is a surge on the circuit.
RCDs trip out if there is current leaking to earth from either phase/line ("live" in laymans terms) or neutral to earth greater than the trip current (maximum of 30mA for any socket circuit). If you press the "Test" button on an RCD and it does not trip then it MUST be replaced as faulty. It may just have been stuck from never being tested - but even that means that you cannot rely on it. You should test your RCD(s) at least once every three months. It my have a mechanical fault that means that it seems to work and test OK if it has recently been mechanically operated but you cannot be sure. (The "Test" button produces an imbalance in the phase and neutral currents to simulate an earth fault.)
Simon..
(NICEIC Approved Contractor)
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