consumer unit tripping

[foxystoat1972]

My dad has a problem with a consumer unit at a house he bought. The only item connected to the consumer unit is an Electric oven. There is no lighting or ring circuits connected to the unit. Only positive, negative and earth from the meter and grid. But when anything on the oven is switched on (even just the light) the consumer unit trips out.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Has he just installed this himself then? Or did it ever work before?

What exactly is "tripping out"??
RCD, MCB, RCBO??

Has the item got a test switch. ??

Untitled

• Taylortwocities
• 27 Mar 2010
• 43

Sounds to me like the consumer unit is wired incorrectly: eg neutral in the wrong place.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Have you got pictures of the internal connections within the consumer unit.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

My dad has a problem with a consumer unit at a house he bought.

That reads as if he's a landlord or developer.

If so, why doesn't he ask his electrician to look at it?

 

[foxystoat1972]

The unit was wired by the grid people. I'm an auto electrician so i had a look at it the only thing that was wired was the ring circuit which worked fine but when the oven was switched on it all tripped. So i disconnected the ring in both positive negative and earth and still had the same problem

 

[foxystoat1972]

also its the RCD black switch which trips

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

The unit was wired by the grid people.

The grid people generally don't install consumer units, they only deal with supply side.

I'm an auto electrician so i had a look at it the only thing that was wired was the ring circuit which worked fine but when the oven was switched on it all tripped.

That points to a fault at the oven

So i disconnected the ring in both positive negative and earth and still had the same problem

Please explain this!
You disconnected all conductors of both legs of the RFC and when you switched oven on, the RCD tripped? Even though this is the only circuit that is/was electrically connected?

 

[foxystoat1972]

yes thats correct

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Can we have picture then?

 

[foxystoat1972]

i wish i had taken one. But what i can add is i disconnected the oven from the consumer unit and ran a spare cable direct from the the oven to the consumer unit and still had the same problem.

 

[RF Lighting]

It's either a faulty oven or it's connected wrong in the CU

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

i wish i had taken one. But what i can add is i disconnected the oven from the consumer unit and ran a spare cable direct from the the oven to the consumer unit and still had the same problem.

Did you test the new cable/circuit before energising?
If not the fault could be anywhere on that circuit but the likelihood is that its either at board or at oven.
Try converting this new circuit to a socket circuit and plug in something, then see if it trips!

 

[MySparky]

So your RCD is tripping, but you haven't mentioned the rating of the mcb you've got the oven circuit connected to??? You could have a faulty mcb, have you tried connecting the circuit to a spare 20A mcb?

 

[securespark]

It's either a faulty oven or it's connected wrong in the CU

Or a dodgy RCD?

Either way, we need pix...