Holiday home electrics problem - any suggestions?

[Stevel]

Hello all,

We are one day into our holiday, staying at a friends cottage in Dorset. All was going well, but we noticed it was getting cold last night, and discovered that the power to the boiler was off.

Power to the whole kitchen circuit, half the lounge and some of the bedrooms have also gone. The lighting circuit and some power circuits remain.

I have found and checked the fuseboard and nothing had tripped. We turned it on and off just to check with no change. We have also checked for any
Additional fuse boxes to no luck (the kitchen is an extension).

I have contacted my friend, who is getting a sparks in on Monday, but am here, asking if there is something obvious which I have overlooked? If this helps, my wife thinks that the last thing running was the dishwasher.

We have no heating or cooking, nor hot water, so anything to appease my wife on Mothers Day (we have three small children) would be gratefully received!

Thanks in advance,

Steve

 

[ricicle]

If there is no remote consumer unit or any additional trips at the mains position then it could be that the socket circuit is on a poorly designed radial circuit and are possibly fed via a fused connection unit somewhere off the original circuit.
The fuse in this unit could have possibly operated under overload.

 

[40 watt spark]

Have a look at the 'fusebox' if its fairly modern unit with circuit breakers there could be one or two wider devices marked RCD or RCCB (they have a little test button on them). Check that the levers on these are fully up, some when they trip stop in the mid position and you have to switch them off then back on.

Its normal to split circuits between two RCD's so if theres a fault you only lose part of the power/lighting etc in the property.

 

[Stevel]

I've checked - there is only one wide RCD, and the switch is fully up. We switched it off and pushed it back up. There is a test button too, but that is not having any effect. Is it likely there could be a fault in the switch itself? Don't panic, I won't try to repair or replace it myself!

 

[ericmark]

I've checked - there is only one wide RCD, and the switch is fully up. We switched it off and pushed it back up. There is a test button too, but that is not having any effect.

If the test button is not working then likely no supply to box. Either fed from another box or fuse.