RCD stands for Residual Currant Detector now.
Well, the other day all the house 13 amp sockets decided to give up the ghost.
Now, because I have comprehensive understanding and expert skills in the intricacies of domestic wiring, I didn’t know where to start fault finding.
Petals voice from the kitchen interrupted my train of thought advising me that the toaster was taking its time.
“I know sweetness of my life. All the sockets have tripped out.”
“Why?”, she asked.
“I think it is electrical capacitance feedback thorough the parsec transistors on the RCD”.
Long silence.
“Can you fix it? – I would like my toast sometime today”.
I duly went to the consumer unit and sure enough, the RCD had tripped. So far so good. I ‘un-tripped’ it and the sockets sprang to life.
The telephone announced that calls would be answered after nine rings and the computer moaned.
“Hmmm!”, I thought. Too easy. Something is wrong. Things that easy are difficult to fix.
Time passed – and I went back to the computer to do some work with Freecell. The screen was blank and the hard drive was silent. Hi Ho – Here we go!
Now, because I have comprehensive understanding and expert skills in the intricacies of domestic women, I suspected where to start fault finding.
I went to the kitchen and questioned Petal.
“Are you blaming me for this?” she asked.
“No – of course not honey pie”. HA!
“All I did was switch on the toaster”.
Now, because I have comprehensive understanding and expert skills in the intricacies of domestic wiring, I knew where to start fault finding.
Unplug the toaster – switch on the RCD – put the computer out of its misery and shut down correctly and leave in the direction of ‘Off’.
Plug in the toaster and watch Petal do her stuff. The RCD tripped!
It was all down to hot cross buns believe it or not. A sticky current has somehow lodged itself in between the toaster elements and over time had carbonised itself into the perfect shorting device.
I know that this is the first and last time you will hear of a currant switching off the current.
