Outside lights tripping rcd

[steve1978]

Hey folks i wonder if any of you have any ideas for solving this problem.

We live out on the moors and so its very dark so we have quite a few external lights all wired into a wall mounted trip switch and all has worked fine for the last 18 months but now when we go to turn on the lights the trip switch constantly trips out before the lights even come on, The thing is if we press the button say 10 times the light will come on and work fine until they are turned off during the day and its time to turn them back on again.
I fist suspected water had got in some place and if thats the case how can i find the spot but then i think if water is getting in how could we get the lights to come on.

 

[ricicle]

It sounds like a moisture problem which is erradicated when the lights eventually come on as the heat from the lamps will evaporate it.

Can you see the whole cable linking between the lights. If so you could isolate and disconnect the lights from about halfway and then power back up. This might indicate which half of the circuit has a fault.
The only problem is that it might be an accumulation of faults on all the lights !
It might be a case of having to inspect all the lights, drying them out and checking their cases for bad seals.

 

[steve1978]

The problem is i cant see any of the cable as its all buried and i dont even know where to look as the bloke that owned the house before us is no longer with us so i cant even phone him and ask.

 

[Iggifer]

in that case just start with the lamps themselves, if they are floodlights, (generally) the front will unscrew and there will be a rubber seal around the frame that is supposed to stop water getting in

open them all up and see if there is moisture in any of them - if there is, dry it out and check the rubber seal for damage - it may have degraded and be letting water, you may need to replace the fitting if it is.

You will most likely find a nice host of fried creepy crawlies in there too

 

[steve1978]

thanks for the info i will do all that and see what happens