RCCB Ruining my life

[dryelland1049]

Hi

Everything was fine until an electrician fitted an RCCB to my consumer unit. Now, on average, one or twice a day the RCCB trips. The electrician says he cant find the reason for this but is not allowed to remove the RCCB. We are being driven mad anc cant leave the house for fear of the RCCB tripping and defrosting the freezer or leaving us without security lights Is this such a develishly tricky problem? Who can I turn too? Help!!!

 

[Lectrician]

Get a decent electrician who can fault find!

 

[1john]

What tests did your electrician do before and after installing the RCD?
What paperwork did you receive after he installed the RCD?
What rating is the RCD, 30mA 100mA ect?
Does there appear to be a pattern of when the RCD trips, perhaps when the heating boiler fires up, when the washing machine or dish washer is on a certain cycle?
Do you have alot of computers in your home?

 

[ricicle]

And get one who doesn't fit a single front end 30mA (I'm presuming) RCD to an entire installation !

 

[1john]

And get one who doesn't fit a single front end 30mA (I'm presuming) RCD to an entire installation !

hence my asking if he had any paperwork as this clearly hasnt complied with bs7671.

 

[ricicle]

And get one who doesn't fit a single front end 30mA (I'm presuming) RCD to an entire installation !

hence my asking if he had any paperwork as this clearly hasnt complied with bs7671.

Your post wasn't there when i posted

 

[1john]

Pardon me, I was unaware of that

 

[vsynth]

The electrician says he cant find the reason for this

Then tell him to find and pay for one who can fix the problem he has caused.

 

[dryelland1049]

Yes he fitted a single rccb to the whole installation, it has a 30mA rating. The only clue we have is that it only trips when the boiler is working. However, the boiler has been checked out independently with no problem found.

 

[ricicle]

If you suspect the boiler than leave it fully isolated and see if it still happens. It might not be just the boiler, depending on the type of system, it could be pump/valves etc or a cable ? Not all items would necessarily be in circuit when the 'independant' check was carried out !

 

[plugwash]

Intermittent problems are always the hardest to diagnose. If a problem only happens a couple of times a day the chances of it showing when some test equipment is hooked up is minimal

Really you need to get the installation split up at least across two RCDs and prefeablly onto individual RCBOs. That way by moving stuff from one RCD to the other you can get a better idea of where the problem is.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Yes he fitted a single rccb to the whole installation.

Did he give you an Electrical Installation Certificate?

Did he notify Building Control?

 

[dingbat]

Yes he fitted a single rccb to the whole installation.

Did he give you an Electrical Installation Certificate?

Did he notify Building Control?

Of course not. That configuration has been outlawed for decades. The man clearly has no idea about electrical installation practices or regulations.

A better question would be, how much damage did his spurs do to your skirting boards? You have, OP, been Roy-Rogered.

A Trading Standards report would be in order, I reckon.

 

[BSBS]

There may not actually be anything wrong with the installation or any of the appliances. An RCD basically monitors what goes through it and what is returned if the difference becomes to great between what goes through and what is returned, in this instance probably 25mA or more then the RCD will trip.

Most appliances will "Leak" a little bit especially items like kettles, fridges, freezers, immersion heaters and to an extent computer equipment. It could be that becuase this one RCD is covering the whole installation on occasion when different appliances are turning on (fridges, Freezers ect) the inbalance is becoming to great and tripping the RCD. Having a correctly selected and installed fuseboard may well solve the problem.

What ever is actually causing the RCD to trip be it an intermitatnt fault with something or simply an accumilation of general earth leakage, its not somethign that the electrician has caused its just that you did not have a device in place to detect this sort of fault previously.

But as several people have stated he should not have installed a single 30mA RCD to cover the whole installation.