Electrics Keep Tripping Off

[gazanolan]

Hi Any advice would help please ??

The electric in my house keeps tripping off every half hour or so .

I have an old rewireable fuseboard ,should be changed I know and connected to this is an earth trip switch(light grey coloured box)

Is there a simple way of tracing the problem

I ve removed or switched off anything on a timer to see if this helps

 

[oharaf]

giz a pic or 2 Gaz

 

[gazanolan]

I m not at home at the minute so cant its a standard rewireable fuse box with the old fashioned 2 pin fuses that you can put new wire into .The trip switch is about 8 inches long about 5 inches wide and 4 inches deep it has a switch similar to the on/off switch of the fuse box and a small square test switch I ve had the house since 1995 and they were installed before then

 

[oharaf]

Right, this suggests you probably have an earth fault some where!!!!

First thing to try when you get home (this will take some time)

Unplug everything!!!

Take out all the fuses, except one, put on the power and every 45 mins say, put a fuse back in, if and when it 'trips' you have found the circuit that is the problem, this will require investigation.

If you successfully get ALL the fuses back in, without tripping, then this would suggest a faulty appliance, start plugging these in one by one giving time for tripping to occur

By now it is Saturday morning and your very tired and you may still not have had a trip.

To be bruitally honest with you Gaz, I would consider getting a sparky to come around and identify the cause of the problem, yes it will cost money but he will manage this far quicker.

Earth leakage can occur from appliances such as PC's, cookers, fridge freezers which is quite normal.

You can try my method, but, i personally would go for the sparky, he has the neccessary equipment and knowledge.

Best of luck

 

[gazanolan]

Cheers Mate , roughly how much would a sparky cost to come out and identify the problem hard one to geusstimate I know

 

[oharaf]

Yep hard one to say, he will want to insulation Resistance test your entire house, and then if there is a fault narrow this down to a circuit and then to the fault itself.

You could have things ready by removing all light bulbs, unplugging all appliances letting him know where there are any neon switches, shaver sockets, flurescent light fittings

again if the fault is in the circuitry he will want to locate it, this may take some time.

I would say be prepared for about £120 but then again might be less might be more

 

[gazanolan]

Cheers at least I know what to expect rather than having my eyes taken out

 

[securespark]

Why leave one fuse in?

Pull them all out. If it still won't reset, you have an NE fault. Disconnect all the outgoing neutrals. Then if it still won't reset, chances are it's a faulty RCD.

If it does reset, reconnect each fuse (or neutral) in turn & see which one trips the RCD.

Does the test button work?

 

[gazanolan]

Hi I tried as advised and the power does nt trip off if I take the power away from the central heating boiler so I guess I have a problem with that ..Thanks Everyone

 

[Spark123]

Could be something else on the C/H system i.e. a valve, pump or a leaky pipe

 

[JohnD]

look at the pump first.