The other avenue to consider, other than cleaning, is the act of moving out, if there was a cable damaged by a floorboard or floorboard fixing, then moving heavy furniture around on top could cause things to shift and a fault to occur...egro... caused by the tennants but actually not in any way their fault
Trouble shooting an RCD protected circuit
- Thread starter BlackPotato
- Start date
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I investigated a bit further....
disconnecting the neutral from the socket circuit in the cu and everything else works.
So Neutral/Earth leak on the ring main I assume ?
I disconnected the oven/hob (ignition only) extractor, boiler and a pair of wall lights and no change.
If I disconnect only one side of the ring main and then split the ring half way around, then if that works split further around and so on... I'm thinking I should be able to locate the effected section ? id just use a low wattage lamp to confirm which sockets are live each time I make a change....
Sound sane ?
disconnecting the neutral from the socket circuit in the cu and everything else works.
So Neutral/Earth leak on the ring main I assume ?
I disconnected the oven/hob (ignition only) extractor, boiler and a pair of wall lights and no change.
If I disconnect only one side of the ring main and then split the ring half way around, then if that works split further around and so on... I'm thinking I should be able to locate the effected section ? id just use a low wattage lamp to confirm which sockets are live each time I make a change....
Sound sane ?
Sounds rather like it.
If you are certain that that leaves nothing else connected to the circuit, then it would only really leave 'the wiring'. That's most likely to be something wrong behind a socket or other accessory, but might conceivably be a problem in the cable itself (rodents, nails/screws, trapped by floorboards etc.).
Yes, that sounds sane. Even standard test equipment probably would not help you too much, other than to confirm (or otherwise) the presence of a N-E fault and to give an idea of how high/low resistance the fault is (which might give some clues as to likely cause).
Kind Regards, John
Productive day and things are working again.
went through and eliminated parts of the ring main cleaning and re fitting sockets (some quite damp with copper cancer) cant be 100% sure the source but the last few sockets I worked on I found one with both a lose earth and neutral so maybe that was the fault.
Anyway back on, ran the oven, extractor, wall lights and a few power tools and didnt trip.
One odd bit of wiring I did find looked like a spur off the ring.
2x single sockets next to each other, both wired directly (not as a ring)
Would have expected to see the live and neutral connected across the back of the sockets ( or both into 1 of them and then the other in series). But as I have no way of knowing how they are wired under the floor I left them as they are.
went through and eliminated parts of the ring main cleaning and re fitting sockets (some quite damp with copper cancer) cant be 100% sure the source but the last few sockets I worked on I found one with both a lose earth and neutral so maybe that was the fault.
Anyway back on, ran the oven, extractor, wall lights and a few power tools and didnt trip.
One odd bit of wiring I did find looked like a spur off the ring.
2x single sockets next to each other, both wired directly (not as a ring)
Would have expected to see the live and neutral connected across the back of the sockets ( or both into 1 of them and then the other in series). But as I have no way of knowing how they are wired under the floor I left them as they are.
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Sounds promising, although it would obviously be more satisfactory/satisfying if you had found something which was definitely the cause. Loose connections, per se, didn't really ought to cause that sort of problem.
Do you mean that each only had one cable? If so, they must be spurs from somewhere (either both from the same place or from different places) but, as you say, without following the wires, you will never know for sure. Do any of the other nearby sockets have three cables?
Kind Regards, John
A common fault within a socket is the neutral wire crushed against the faceplate screw/fixing lug on back box.
This can cause a neutral-earth short.
Perhaps by taking things apart you have stopped the fault.
Did you notice any damaged wires?
This can cause a neutral-earth short.
Perhaps by taking things apart you have stopped the fault.
Did you notice any damaged wires?
What exactly do you mean by that?
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