Different fuses blowing, ideas?

[andrewukr6]

Hello. My sister has a slightly weird problem I haven't encountered before, they have no power and the electrician / supplier not come up with anything yet.

She has an old style fuse box and fuses, no RCD. Different fuses are blowing intermittently. Washing machine plug fuse blew and a few appliances damaged. Sounds like an external surge to me. They hooked a generator upto the board, again different fuses blew. So they are thinking it is not external, but internal.

I can understand a problem on one circuit, but why are multiple blowing? Only motor I can think of is a pond pump. Could it be there circuits are somehow linked through bad wiring, I guess testing for this is needed but I am not there and would hope the elctrician has done an insulation/contunity test.

Anyway anyone come across something like this before?

 

[securespark]

Which fuses exactly?

You say an appliance plug fuse blew that left "a few appliances damaged"... can you be more specific?

 

[andrewukr6]

sure, 4 were going at differnt times. A mix of 16a and 32a lighting and power circuits. Appliance wise, the washing machine plug fuse blew, an Ipad, and the Skybox.

 

[securespark]

So the ipad and skybox are damaged?

Lighting should not really be on 16A circuit.

Have you had any electrical or drilling work done?

 

[endecotp]

Do the neighbours have similar problems?

Do you have a batch of very cheap fuses from eBay?

Recently someone asked another question that fell into the "that should never happen" category and I asked, not entirely seriously, if the building was full of fine metal dust that was getting inside all the electrical devices and making them malfunction. "Oh yes", he replied, "I regularly grind carbon fibre and aluminium and the dust gets everywhere.". So same question to you - is there some bizzare unusual activity in the house that we ought to know about?

 

[stillp]

They hooked a generator upto the board

Who did? How stable is the generator output?

 

[andrewukr6]

So the ipad and skybox are damaged?
Lighting should not really be on 16A circuit.
Have you had any electrical or drilling work done?

no electrical work done, it's a rental...drilling nope they don't even own a drill!

Do the neighbours have similar problems?

Do you have a batch of very cheap fuses from eBay?
So same question to you - is there some bizzare unusual activity in the house that we ought to know about?

Fuses are old style fuse wire type, haven't been altered recently... I will find out about unusal activity, however it's my sister and kids and they don't partake in any DIY or similar. One of the kids did get a vivarium for a lizard which I would think gets very humid, or a pond with pump etc which can sometimes be a good place to look for issues, while this could course a short can't see why the whole house should go down! Nice idea on the filings!

Who did? How stable is the generator output?

The electrican found by the landlord, not sure on stability of output. They are now hooking up multiple generators. I thought I'd try here on these boards as they've been a week with no power or heating and it seemed off problem!


Could bad wiring somehow be linking these circuits? If not could it be a problem in a bad CCU (old style?)

 

[endecotp]

Using generators sounds like a very odd (and desperate) thing to do.
Are the generators being connected to the existing house wiring, or are individual appliances being connected directly to the generators?
There are many things that could go wrong if they are connecting multiple generators to the same existing wiring.

Do ask the neighbours if they have any problems. If the problem is coming from outside then it will probably be affecting other people.

Are there any solar systems on roofs nearby?

 

[flameport]

Could bad wiring somehow be linking these circuits? If not could it be a problem in a bad CCU (old style?)

On a normal domestic single phase supply, bad wiring does not cause appliance fuses to blow. That can only occur if the appliance itself is defective, or a substantially larger than normal voltage is applied to it.

If there is a problem with the external supply, you contact the DNO who will repair the fault. They might supply a temporary generator if the repairs will take an extended time.
External faults causing excessively high voltages would typically affect several properties at the same time.
The DNO for the particular location can be found here: http://www.energynetworks.org/info/faqs/electricity-distribution-map.html

The electrican found by the landlord, not sure on stability of output. They are now hooking up multiple generators.

There are no circumstances where that would be necessary or appropriate.
If there are faults internal to the property, testing will locate those.
A fault with the external supply will be dealt with by the DNO as above.

 

[endecotp]

If there is a problem with the external supply, you contact the DNO who will repair the fault.

The first line says that the supplier has been involved and not (yet) found a fault.

 

[bernardgreen]

They hooked a generator upto the board, again different fuses blew

That seems a bit odd as a first step. A transient monitor is the usual first stage to check for any short duration periods of over voltage. These over volts can be caused by either a faulty Neutral in the supply network or a large unbalance across the three phases which can drag the Neutral voltage away from the Null point, two phases will get voltage reductions an the third one will get an increase in voltage.

Large motors or welding equipment in another house on the same network feed ( but other phase ) can cause short periods of over voltage. A large herbal growing operation can cause permanent over voltage.

 

[securespark]

How many appliances have blown their own fuses?

Are any appliances permanently damaged?

Find out from the electrician (he SHOULD have left paperwork) what the incoming voltage is, IR readings etcetera.

 

[securespark]

I've attended properties in the past with an open circuit neutral in the supply and when plugged into a socket, my test kit was reading 400V... Then appliances can start frying.