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Jpsmythe

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Hi there - hoping for some advice, as I am literally clueless about electrics.

Over the last week or so, our electrics have tripped a couple of times - before today, it was always middle of the night, so I assumed the thermostat or boiler kicking in.
But then yesterday and today, it’s been more frequent, and seemingly linked to things in the house being used for ten minutes or so - my Xbox, a computer, the (electric) oven.
Sometimes, when the power trips, the sockets in the living room fuse trips as well as the mains; sometimes, just the mains.
As a bonus: this all started happening around the same time our fridge started messing up a little (the light went, discovered it’s actually LEDs on a circuit that’s also the thermostat, gave me a tiny electric shock) - but that’s not on the living room circuit, and the motor etc doesn’t seem to have any connection to the cutting out of the power.
I’ve tried shutting stuff off one by one, and can’t find the culprit. Do I just need to get an electrician out now? Is there anything else I can do myself?
 
Can you post a pic of your distribution board (fuse box)
There are some fault finding things you can do without having to get into depth that might help.
 
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Can you post a pic of your distribution board (fuse box)
There are some fault finding things you can do without having to get into depth that might help.
Absolutely!
Here it is...
 

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Is it the far left switch that is tripping off?
 
If the circuit breaker with Sockets written below it is tripping this is due to excess current most likely from a fault between live/earth or live/neutral. With the left switch (rcd) also tripping I suspect a live/earth fault either through the circuit or something plugged into that circuit.
 
A good start might be turning off the breaker that trips (4th from left)
See if the problem goes away.
 
If the circuit breaker with Sockets written below it is tripping this is due to excess current most likely from a fault between live/earth or live/neutral. With the left switch (rcd) also tripping I suspect a live/earth fault either through the circuit or something plugged into that circuit.
The sockets one only trips say 1/4 of the time - could the thing tripping the left one be on a different circuit than that sockets one? (I’ve been wondering about that fridge for example - and earlier I was almost certain that the oven was tripping it, and that’s on the same circuit as the fridge - but as I say, that’s not the one that occasionally trips.)

(thanks for all the help by the way - I really (probably very clearly!) know nothing about this stuff...)
 
The rcd tripping is just a lottery. As Judge Judy would say, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck. The fault is almost certainly to do with the socket circuit :)
 
The rcd tripping is just a lottery. As Judge Judy would say, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck. The fault is almost certainly to do with the socket circuit :)
So is it most likely to be an appliance/device that’s faulty then? I’m working my way through them, and it seems like the computer and the Xbox both could be culprits, but they only sprang the left switch, not the sockets one...
 
So is it most likely to be an appliance/device that’s faulty then? I’m working my way through them, and it seems like the computer and the Xbox both could be culprits, but they only sprang the left switch, not the sockets one...
I would actually rule those two out though never say never.
 
So during the night, I had everything switched off/unplugged on the circuit that’s been tripping... and still the rcd tripped twice. Once when it seemed like it could be the boiler, then again when I turned the thermostat right down and the boiler wasn’t doing anything. Driving me a bit nuts now...
 
Small update: it tripped multiple times in the night, say every half an hour, and then I stopped resetting it; then this morning we put the TV on, all was fine. Turned the computer on, five Minutes later it tripped. Back to only the TV, and it’s been stable for an hour? Maybe? But during the night, TV/computer etc were off - every socket was off bar the one for the nest thermostat.
 
May be time for an electrician who will have suitable test equipment.
 
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