please help... power keeps cutting off!

[skuba]

sorry, i don't know much about electrics but i'll try and explain...

about half an hour ago we lost power to our house. i ran straight to the fuse box and it had tripped out on the main power switch, so i just flicked it straight back on. about a minute or so later it happened again, so i turned it back on again. at the time my girlfriend was ironing so we plugged the iron in to another socket in case there was a faulty plug socket. she was happily ironing away for about 10 minutes and it happened again! so she decided to leave the ironing alone for tonight. we didn't have anything out of the ordinary turned on - tv was in standby, washing machine was on, PC was on upstairs, and some lights. that was about it

we're planning on trying the iron in a socket upstairs to see if we can narrow it down to the sockets downstairs

can anyone offer any advice?

thanks

 

[laurieash]

Hi Had the same problem its the Iron its faulty try a new iron in the same sockets if the fault is still there see a sparki but dump the iron first its cheaper than calling a sparki.

 

[skuba]

Hi Had the same problem its the Iron its faulty try a new iron in the same sockets if the fault is still there see a sparki but dump the iron first its cheaper than calling a sparki.

thanks for the quick reply! can an iron cause the whole fuse box to trip out? how come it doesn't just knock out the 'downstairs sockets' fuse?

hope that makes sense!

thanks again

 

[stargazer]

Your iron is the problem, not your electrics.
Sounds like it has developed an earth leakage fault which is tripping your RCD main switch.
That switch may cover some or all the sockets in your house, so every time you use the iron in an RCD protected socket, your main switch will trip.
This is an earth leakage problem, not an over-current fault which would trip the "fuse".
Long and short of it, don't worry about the technicalities.
Buy the young lady a new iron, and take her out for dinner.
Sorted.

 

[skuba]

that's great. thanks

the reason i was worried is because we've recently had a new kitchen fitted (including replacement sockets etc) so i thought it might have been caused by the builders/electricians

cheers

 

[braychurchmouse]

Steam iron I bet?

By any chance, did the electricians in the recent kitchen refit decide, in their wisdom, to change the main board to a new "modern" one?

In which case you have been introduced to the delights of earth leakage and random trips. (google it...or search on this board for further info).

You will now be safe from the minimal chance of electrocution by some types of electrical fault, but exposed to the risk of breaking your neck rummaging around in a pitch black garage trying to reset the main switch. (unless you are fortunate enough to have your lighting circuits separate from the RCD protected ring main).

And there's always the chance that in the panic to switch the mains back on you forget to unplug or switch off the iron so when you switch the power back on you don't notice the iron is still on....and its bedtime so you go to bed...and the iron starts a fire.

Oh happy day! (So you see I'm not a big fan of the way a lot of RCD protection is often implemented...and the healthy debate over the years in fora such as this will show you that I'm not alone.)

 

[pbar]

We used to have a toaster that did this. You are inclined to think it's the electrics as opposed to the appliance, it's wierd that an appliance that was working perfectly hours before, suddenly starts to trip the whole house electrics. But it happens.

 

[pbar]

Buy the young lady a new iron....

Goodness! That's a dangerous comment!

 

[skuba]

thanks for all your help!