General electrical safety question

Posted by: Alex S. on 02 January 2003

My home is quite new. I'm not there now but from memory it has a big 100A fuse leading to a variety of breakers/RCDs. One RCD is very large and seems to control most domestic appliances and the TV and ancilleries.

This big switch tripped just as Liverpool were about to come unstuck in the St James's Park mud last night. I switched it back on and all was fine until my wife rang just now to tell me its tripped again.

Does anyone know what might be the cause? I venture that all the rain we've had may have penetrated somewhere unwanted. How dangerous could this be? An electrician is unlikely to ring back until tommorrow and not arrive till God knows when.

Alex

PS My hi-fi is unaffected since its at work 5 miles away.

PPS I would ask that the moderators allow this thread to remain here since I'm a little worried and wanted maximum exposure.

Thanks in advance of any replies.
Posted on: 02 January 2003 by garyi
You may console your self that it is tripping alex.
Posted on: 02 January 2003 by Paul Ranson
Is the tripping correlated with the use of an appliance like a dish washer or washing machine?

The fact of the trip tripping implies a fault, it's not dangerous since it's tripped, IYSWIM.

Paul
Posted on: 02 January 2003 by Alex S.
I will start a long, tedious process of elimination. Tripped yesterday with dishwasher and washing machine both idle. My guess is water penetration behind a junction box or some failure of the 6 B&Q 29 gangs behind the telly . . .

Alex
Posted on: 02 January 2003 by Dev B
Paul is right. Either something or some appliance in your house is faulty or the mains supply is being interuppted. But the fact that the thing is tripping is a good thing.

Happy new year,

Dev
Posted on: 02 January 2003 by Paul Ranson
Alex, do you have pets? Or perhaps a child that has spilled a drink inappropriately?

Paul
Posted on: 02 January 2003 by ray dodd
Alex,
Quite a lot of electrical appliances contain mains filters which give rise to a small amount of earth leakage anyway,however if they begin to fail (or fail) they can certainly draw enough current to trip a 30mA RCD...So other than a house wiring problem (insulation test required) appliances such as washers,dishwashers,fridges etc. must be prime suspects.It may be of interest to note that if these appliances are 'off' but plugged in and switched on at the mains the filters could still be powered .
And of course you may have a faulty RCD.....everbody thought it ....I thought I'd state the obvious
Posted on: 02 January 2003 by Derek Wright
Do you have any external cable, lights, auto switching lights, what have you changed since the last big rains.

Derek
Posted on: 02 January 2003 by Martin Payne
Some friends of mine moved into a new house, amd found that if they had more than two PCs powered up at a time they would cause the RCD to trip.

The Leccy said PCs were often the problem.

Maybe they have a lot of RF filtering, and therefore cause more problems as per Ray's post.

cheers, Martin
Posted on: 03 January 2003 by Alex S.
The washing machine did manage to blow its 13A plug fuse a week ago so I guess that's a suspect, and, yes, it is 'on' all the time.

Apparently, many electricians just try and fit an on off switch rather than reach the root of the RCD problem - I have been advised to show any such the door, pronto.

Paul, sadly, in our household its only me who spills drinks but I've not spilled any more inappropriately than on the carpet. The pets were all electrocuted long ago.

Alex

PS Speaking of electrocution, I watched 'Monster's Ball' yesterday (the one Halle Berry got her Oscar for) and advise anyone who hasn't seen it to do so. All the acting is superb and it manages to be moving without the gross sentimentality I witnessed when watching 'A Beautiful Mind' the day before.