Main Trip Switch Tripped, All Power lost, electric cooker element.

[DrWho]

With the consumer unit you have ,RCD will cut power to ALL circuits if an earth leakage fault occurs on ANY circuit. Very sensitive device and there to protect you.

Going by my box image earlier is this looking correct apart from the fact that the label marked COOKER is for the fridge? plus is leakage to the earth that caused the trippage to the Rcd, is this inevitable when an element goes wonky, reason for asking is that I have read that some people are saying that there can be earth leaks because of poor insulation between the element terminals and the earth.

 

[terryplumb]

Going by my box image earlier is this looking correct apart from the fact that the label marked COOKER is for the fridge? .

Yes.

Rcd can be re set when no longer a fault but cannot re set if fault exists. Re set is done simply by flipping the black switch back up. The little yellow button is a test button. Press it and rcd flips to OFF. It should be pressed periodically to check RCD is functioning ,but people rarely bother

 

[terryplumb]

RCD tripping when element fails is not unusual ,nor is it inevitable.

 

[DrWho]

RCD tripping when element fails is not unusual ,nor is it inevitable.

Then can it be prevented from happening in the first place? as I am not too happy when power goes off completely.

 

[terryplumb]

How often do you think a cooker element will fail ? Not exactly gonna be plunged into darkness every day are you ?

 

[DrWho]

How often do you think a cooker element will fail ? Not exactly gonna be plunged into darkness every day are you ?

It's nothing to do with light, you know as well as I do that a sudden power loss can corrupt computer drives! it only needs to happen once to cause such issues.

 

[DrWho]

Why isn't there a separate Mcb named OVEN so that when an element goes it's only the oven switch that is tripped?

 

[terryplumb]

Fumbling about in the dark could result in personal injury , and yes of course losing your computer data would be a real inconvenience.however any fault on a circuit that your computer is conneted to ,which operated an MCB or rcd on that circuit ,would create the same situation with your computer. These devices are there to protect the electric installation ,cables ,property and humans from damage and harm.

 

[DrWho]

Fumbling about in the dark could result in personal injury , and yes of course losing your computer data would be a real inconvenience.however any fault on a circuit that your computer is conneted to ,which operated an MCB or rcd on that circuit ,would create the same situation with your computer. These devices are there to protect the electric installation ,cables ,property and humans from damage and harm.

Why would I be fumbling about in the dark?

What is the point of having individual trip switches (Mcb's) when the whole power goes off i.e the Rcd when an element goes faulty? why isn't it similar to when a light bulb blows? the trip switch Mcb for that set of lights switches off but not the whole power.

 

[bernardgreen]

What is the point of having individual trip switches (Mcb's) when the whole power goes off i.e the Rcd when an element goes faulty? why isn't it similar to when a light bulb blows? the trip switch Mcb for that set of lights switches off but not the whole power.

Change your Consumer unit so that there are more than one RCD ( earth leakage trip ) and have some lights proptected by RCD 1 and the other lights protected by RCD 2

Or even better have a consumer unit fitted with RCBOs (*) with each circiut on it's own RCBO. Then a fault on one circuit will not affect other circuits. Nit a low cost iption but does provide the best protection and safety ( lights stay on when an appliance trips a breaker )

(*) RCBO is a protective device that combines an MCB ( over current protection ) and an RCD ( earth leakage protection ) in one unit.

 

[DrWho]

bernardgreen

Thanks for that, however I don't see that happening unfortunately being that it's a rented property and the landlord is never to keen to splash the cash.

 

[terryplumb]

Good advice bernard. But landlord is hardly likely to want to finance it. And if the circuit that Daleks computer is plugged into trips the rcbo for some reason he still has the problem of corruption of computer drives. What can be done to avert this possible catastrophe ? Any ideas
Edit .. Can a battery back up be introduced ??

 

[bernardgreen]

Point out to the land lord that loss of all power and lights creates a hazard, potentially a very serious hazard at night. A hazard that could have an adverse on his property.

He should at least have the installation up graded to have two RCDs so that some lights will be available after an incident

 

[DrWho]

Tried one of those heavy duty batteries for desktop computers, wouldn't recommend them as they too had issues.

 

[DrWho]

Not everyone knows about electricity so it may appear to some that I'm not reading the answers but I'm just trying to understand more that's all, not everyone is a know it all.