Intermittent tripping

[Fee]

Hi there,

My knowledge on electrics and fuse boxes is a bit limited I'm afraid, I hope someone might be able to advise!

The trip switch for all the plugs in my house tripped yesterday with no obvious culprit. The appliances plugged in and in use at the time were: fridge, two televisions, a playstation and a few other (which I would have thought were) small appliances e.g. bedside lamp, telephone. Other appliances were plugged in but not in use - kettle, stereo, DVD player.
Nothing had been turned on at the time - it just went for no apparent reason.

The house was rewired about 10 years ago. It doesn't have the fuse box that I would be familiar with - the type that when a fuse blew, you could replace it with the ceramic type ones you could buy in a hardware shop.
I'm not that familiar with this kind of thing - perhaps it is an MCB? How can I tell? I've searched for pictures that might correspond to give me an idea - no joy.

After trying to troubleshoot the problem - plugging out a few appliances and trying the trip-switch again, no joy - it kept flipping back to off. I left it for about 10 minutes and tried again - everything came back on!

Can anyone advise on what the problem could be or where I could find info about my fuse box?

Apologies if this is an obvious question and thanks for reading my query!

 

[plugwash]

we need to know exactly what is tripping

put a photo of your board (with the thing that tripped maked) on a website and paste us a link

 

[BR]

Intermitant faults are always the most difficiult to solve. Could be a faulty MCB (I'm guessing RCD in your case). Does the tripping device have a TEST button. What markings are on the device? Do you have a digital camera? Any other info.

 

[Fee]

Hi there - thanks for the replies and interest plugwash and BR!

I think that my 'fuse box' is actually an RCD with MCBs - I've posted a picture here --> http://groups.msn.com/mydiy/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=2

I've marked the switch that tripped.

At the moment everything is working fine - no tripping. I have tested the little button beside the switch and it trips - I guess this is the tester for the switch-trip?

I'm not really sure what to do now as everythign is working fine - do nothing?!

 

[plugwash]

thats a rcd that tripped which means there was an earth fault somewhere

fridges sometimes do this if damp gets into the motor
as it was a one off i wouldn't worry about it but if it happens again get a sparky to check out your wiring and appliances

 

[Fee]

Thanks plugwash,

The fridge is only 5 months old - I hope damp in the motor wouldn't be happening already !

So far so good anyway, I'll keep my fingers crossed - thanks again!
Fee