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Hi, sorry if this end up a little long but hopefully, with all the info, somebody may be able to help.
Our house was built in 1995 and had fitted from new a 'Square D 10 way' consumer unit. However, we had a conservatory built in February of last year (2006) and at the same time I had my electrician upgrade the consumer unit (Protek 16 way) as we had filled up the existing. He also did some earth bonding in the bathrooms in order to be able to certificate the work.
During the next few weeks, the new RCD tripped a couple of times but we thought nothing of it. However, when we returned from our Summer holiday in the August, the RCD had tripped again and we returned to find my daughters tropical fish had died and two warm freezers full of food!!
The electrician advised that he would not be able to trace the fault and it is a case of leaving appliances turned off to see if we can isolate the cause. We have been doing this for the last eight months and it's driving us mad!!!
Over recent weeks we thought we had traced it down to the tumble drier as we found that it was always on when the RCD tripped, although this doesn't explain the tripping whilst on holiday. I have put the drier on an extension so that it can be unplugged when not in use and I though I had found the cause.
Before replacing the drier however, I thought it worthwhile exchanging the RCD in case the original was a little too sensitive. This was done on Thursday of this week and all has been ok untill it tripped in the middle of last night (Friday night) - the tumble drier was unplugged at the time!!
To me, this suggests that there is something else causing the fault and that the tumble drier is the 'straw that breaks the camels back'???
The previous RCD, before the electrician fitted the new consumer unit, was a Square D unit with an 80A / 30mA RCD. This RCD never ever tripped during the 11 years that we had it. Both of the new RCD's have been 63A / 30mA.
Is it true that an electrician with the right kit wouldn't be able to even identify the circuit that the fault is on?
The problem we have is that we have had several weeks with no problems, and then it will trip several times over a course of a few days followed by a calm period again!!
Due to the extended time between trips that we sometimes have, it would be dificult to turn off individual circuits at a time to try to isolate the fault.
Sorry for the extended post, but if anybody could give any advice that may help, I would be most apprciative, this is driving us nuts!!!!! Thanks.
Our house was built in 1995 and had fitted from new a 'Square D 10 way' consumer unit. However, we had a conservatory built in February of last year (2006) and at the same time I had my electrician upgrade the consumer unit (Protek 16 way) as we had filled up the existing. He also did some earth bonding in the bathrooms in order to be able to certificate the work.
During the next few weeks, the new RCD tripped a couple of times but we thought nothing of it. However, when we returned from our Summer holiday in the August, the RCD had tripped again and we returned to find my daughters tropical fish had died and two warm freezers full of food!!
The electrician advised that he would not be able to trace the fault and it is a case of leaving appliances turned off to see if we can isolate the cause. We have been doing this for the last eight months and it's driving us mad!!!
Over recent weeks we thought we had traced it down to the tumble drier as we found that it was always on when the RCD tripped, although this doesn't explain the tripping whilst on holiday. I have put the drier on an extension so that it can be unplugged when not in use and I though I had found the cause.
Before replacing the drier however, I thought it worthwhile exchanging the RCD in case the original was a little too sensitive. This was done on Thursday of this week and all has been ok untill it tripped in the middle of last night (Friday night) - the tumble drier was unplugged at the time!!
To me, this suggests that there is something else causing the fault and that the tumble drier is the 'straw that breaks the camels back'???
The previous RCD, before the electrician fitted the new consumer unit, was a Square D unit with an 80A / 30mA RCD. This RCD never ever tripped during the 11 years that we had it. Both of the new RCD's have been 63A / 30mA.
Is it true that an electrician with the right kit wouldn't be able to even identify the circuit that the fault is on?
The problem we have is that we have had several weeks with no problems, and then it will trip several times over a course of a few days followed by a calm period again!!
Due to the extended time between trips that we sometimes have, it would be dificult to turn off individual circuits at a time to try to isolate the fault.
Sorry for the extended post, but if anybody could give any advice that may help, I would be most apprciative, this is driving us nuts!!!!! Thanks.