Electric tripping overnight
Discussion
Went to bed Sunday night, only to find that the electrics had tripped overnight when i woke up in the morning. Put it down to a glitch and pushed the switch back up on the fuse box and turned everything back on. All fine. Went off to work.
Got home at 6pm to find the electrics had tripped again. The MCBs are all OK, its the RCD for the socket circuits (Upstairs, downstairs, kitchen and shower) that had tripped. Reset it. All back on, and had no problems all evening using all the usual electric stuff.
Woke up this morning to find it had tripped again!
So it's tripping when there is no one in the house, but seems fine when i'm home and using everything. I'm a bit stumped: if it was a loose wire in a socket you'd think it would just trip again as soon as i put the power back on. I can't think of any devices i have that turn on only in the middle of the night... The heating's not on yet, I don't have a hot water tank so no immersion heater or anything.
Any advice/wild guesses on how to find the problem?
Got home at 6pm to find the electrics had tripped again. The MCBs are all OK, its the RCD for the socket circuits (Upstairs, downstairs, kitchen and shower) that had tripped. Reset it. All back on, and had no problems all evening using all the usual electric stuff.
Woke up this morning to find it had tripped again!
So it's tripping when there is no one in the house, but seems fine when i'm home and using everything. I'm a bit stumped: if it was a loose wire in a socket you'd think it would just trip again as soon as i put the power back on. I can't think of any devices i have that turn on only in the middle of the night... The heating's not on yet, I don't have a hot water tank so no immersion heater or anything.
Any advice/wild guesses on how to find the problem?
Your post is a bit confusing as you say it trips when no-one is in the house but then you say it trips overnight when you are asleep.
The first thing I would suggest is to unplug the fridge & freezer & see if the tripping stops - these are common causes of nuisance tripping & it won't hurt to turn them off for 12 hours or so if you keep the doors shut. If the tripping continues then I'd replace the RCD next as they aren't expensive & if it's gone faulty then just swapping it will save a lot of time hunting around the sockets & wiring.
If it's not that then you are down to unplugging absolutely everything & if the tripping continues start to think about possible damage where the wiring is exposed - up in the loft for instance or outside runs where damp might have got into fittings.
The first thing I would suggest is to unplug the fridge & freezer & see if the tripping stops - these are common causes of nuisance tripping & it won't hurt to turn them off for 12 hours or so if you keep the doors shut. If the tripping continues then I'd replace the RCD next as they aren't expensive & if it's gone faulty then just swapping it will save a lot of time hunting around the sockets & wiring.
If it's not that then you are down to unplugging absolutely everything & if the tripping continues start to think about possible damage where the wiring is exposed - up in the loft for instance or outside runs where damp might have got into fittings.
We had something similar and it was driving me mad. It was shortly after we got a new fridge/freezer so I assumed it was that. After very lengthy investigation and just before instructing a sparky to replace the whole downstairs wiring we found a gardener had cut into a cable outside. Once unplugged everything was fine.
Very frustrating as these are normally so hard to pinpoint.
Very frustrating as these are normally so hard to pinpoint.
I had this recently and narrowed it down by trial and error to one of the circuits for downstairs sockets.
I called the sparks and he immediately asked me if there was a washing machine plugged into that circuit.
There was, so he told me to try plugging it into a different socket with an extension cable.
I did that and the circuit stopped tripping. He then replaced the offending socket and all was good again.
Turns out that washing machines are a common cause of stuff like this due to the load they pull.
I called the sparks and he immediately asked me if there was a washing machine plugged into that circuit.
There was, so he told me to try plugging it into a different socket with an extension cable.
I did that and the circuit stopped tripping. He then replaced the offending socket and all was good again.
Turns out that washing machines are a common cause of stuff like this due to the load they pull.
Mr Pointy said:
Your post is a bit confusing as you say it trips when no-one is in the house but then you say it trips overnight when you are asleep.
Sorry, I mean that its tripping when a lot of stuff isn't being used as i'm either out or asleep.I suppose there is quite a lot still plugged in : router, fridge freezer, a clock, the oven and hob (although not switched on), phone charger, iMac, an amp and a couple of Echo Dots.
I'll try turning off the upstairs sockets and shower circuit tonight and see if that works, then try the kitchen sockets, etc and see if i can narrow the search
It's hard to prove anything by waiting for random events not to happen while the washing machine or whatever is unplugged.
A proper testing approach would be to check for earth leakage in every circuit and appliance.
If you don't have the test equipment required, then moving suspect items onto another circuit may be a good start.
It could be an appliance, WM, DW fridge most likely.
It could be damp in the wiring
It could be other faults
Rodent eats wiring?
boyse7en said:
Mr Pointy said:
Your post is a bit confusing as you say it trips when no-one is in the house but then you say it trips overnight when you are asleep.
Sorry, I mean that its tripping when a lot of stuff isn't being used as i'm either out or asleep.I suppose there is quite a lot still plugged in : router, fridge freezer, a clock, the oven and hob (although not switched on), phone charger, iMac, an amp and a couple of Echo Dots.
I'll try turning off the upstairs sockets and shower circuit tonight and see if that works, then try the kitchen sockets, etc and see if i can narrow the search
As posted above "anything with a motor" is a good starting point. If you can unplug the suspects one by one you'll hopefully be able to isolate the trouble maker.
119 said:
My money is on the fridge.
Fridge is always a good ticket if we're having a sweepstake.The condensation at the back of the fridge is supposed to be evaporated by the heat of the compressor. Sometimes it drips where it shouldn't or you get mould or the warm attracts mice which eat the wiring. Or components just fail due to being cheap and powered for years on end.
Washing machine similar possibilities with damp etc.
Damp behind the faceplate of a socket.
Damage to wire.
Ignition circuit on a gas hob?
Cooker hood?
Loose neutral connections?
Our last ring main trip was a kettle. But that was a bit of a bang and clearly never going to work again. Element failed and arced to earth by the look of it.
No house points for diagnosing that!
AC43 said:
Turns out that washing machines are a common cause of stuff like this due to the load they pull.
rcds work by detecting the inbalance of current between live and neutral. The amount of load doesn’t really come into it. Washing machines cause trips because they are associated with water, which tracks to earth and trips the rcd.eliot said:
AC43 said:
Turns out that washing machines are a common cause of stuff like this due to the load they pull.
rcds work by detecting the inbalance of current between live and neutral. The amount of load doesn t really come into it. Washing machines cause trips because they are associated with water, which tracks to earth and trips the rcd.Or something of that nature!
119 said:
When we had this issue, my sparky explained rcds is that what goes out on the live has to come back in on the negative and if it leaks to earth it doesn t all come back so will trip the switch.
Or something of that nature!
yes that’s correct and what i said above.Or something of that nature!
Everyone should consider replacing their crappy plastic split load consumer units (where either the whole house is on one or two rcd’s) to a modern consumer unit where every circuit is on its own dedicated rcd (rcbo) means its easier to narrow down where your fault lies - and the whole installation is less susceptible to nuisance tripping due to the accumulated background leakage in the many devices in a household.
eliot said:
yes that s correct and what i said above.
Everyone should consider replacing their crappy plastic split load consumer units (where either the whole house is on one or two rcd s) to a modern consumer unit where every circuit is on its own dedicated rcd (rcbo) means its easier to narrow down where your fault lies - and the whole installation is less susceptible to nuisance tripping due to the accumulated background leakage in the many devices in a household.
You still have all the 'prime suspect' appliances on the same ring, the same rcd.Everyone should consider replacing their crappy plastic split load consumer units (where either the whole house is on one or two rcd s) to a modern consumer unit where every circuit is on its own dedicated rcd (rcbo) means its easier to narrow down where your fault lies - and the whole installation is less susceptible to nuisance tripping due to the accumulated background leakage in the many devices in a household.
Not many homes suffer excessive nuisance tripping, the problem would be better dealt with by less crappy appliances and other steps to reduce leakage current from bad wiring.
I had this problem at my last house. Every morning power had tripped out.
Traced it to an electric heating element in the dual fuel towel rail. I had got it wired to an immersion timer so it could come on without having the heating on.
If it’s doing it every night then something must be on a timer somewhere or it’s moisture at night getting in to an outside socket or light fitting.
Traced it to an electric heating element in the dual fuel towel rail. I had got it wired to an immersion timer so it could come on without having the heating on.
If it’s doing it every night then something must be on a timer somewhere or it’s moisture at night getting in to an outside socket or light fitting.
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