Circuit breaker tripping

[crunep]

My daughter has just purchased a flat. The consumer unit is new and the wiring is part 16/17 edition. The ring main which has 8 double MK sockets keeps tripping, I would like to point out that all the all the sockets are new.

The ring main has been wotking fine, she has had very little connected to it before this fault. The circuit breaker which is 32 amp will not stay on, if you switch this to the on position it then trips the RCD ib the consumer unit.

Any advise as to tracing this problem would be very much appreciated.

Thanks Crunep

 

[pjcomp]

First, has anything changed lately that might have led to this - eg, you say she's just moved in, has someone been putting up pictures, shelves? Nails or screws in the wall? Something might have nicked a cable.

"All ths sockets are new" - are they new because they've just been repalced? If so one of them may have been wired up wrong.

If not, an appliance is more likely to be the problem than the wiring - what happens if you unplug (not just switch off) everything from the affected circuit - does that cure the problem? If so, plug things in one at a time to see what causes the problem.

Just to check - you say the circuit breaker trips, and the RCD goes when you put the circuit breaker on. Are you sure it's not the RCD that always trips, or the circuit breaker that always trips?

PJ

 

[crunep]

Hi PJ,

The sockets were all changed because my daughter only likes MK. All the other circuits in the flat work. When you switch on the circuit breaker for the ring main it trips the RCD, if you have this circuit breaker on the ring main off and turn the RCD on all the other circuits work fine.

How do I test the circuit to try and trace the fault, could it be a faulty double socket. Or more likley a wiring problem. How can i test this with a multimeter?

crunep

 

[XtraRaptor]

Hi PJ,

The sockets were all changed because my daughter only likes MK. All the other circuits in the flat work. When you switch on the circuit breaker for the ring main it trips the RCD, if you have this circuit breaker on the ring main off and turn the RCD on all the other circuits work fine.

How do I test the circuit to try and trace the fault, could it be a faulty double socket. Or more likley a wiring problem. How can i test this with a multimeter?

crunep

Did the circuit work before the sockets were changed?
Who changed the sockets?
Have you unplugged everything from the sockets and tried to reset the breaker?
I would hazard a guess, that if the breaker started tripping as soon as the sockets were changed then either a connection has broken free and is shorting or a core has been caught/nicked by a cover screw.

 

[crunep]

It has been working fine for weeks with no problems. I just started yesterday, nothing has been changed or tampered with!

 

[XtraRaptor]

It has been working fine for weeks with no problems. I just started yesterday, nothing has been changed or tampered with!

Have you un-plugged everything and tried resetting the breaker?

What did you start doing yesterday?

 

[chivers67]

Turn power of and undo each one in turn checking all the connections, making sure all earths are correctly sleeved etc.

Multimeter wise isn't worth it until you've verified that all the sockets are ok and wired correctly.

 

[EFLImpudence]

As it is the MCB which is tripping, look for a live wire which may have been squashed by the socket screw.

Obviously it won't be when you remove the socket.

 

[streetlighter]

Need to unplug all appliances from the sockets and then carry out insulation resistance test. I'm guessing a trapped wire shorting on the metal back box happened to me couple of weeks back