Crabtree starbreaker rcd fault

[Darkwood]

Well good luck, as the intermittent cause can sometimes be a bitch to locate especially if a trapped wire say under a floorboard that only shows as you walk over it, if only a couple of computers on then i wouldnt worry about it, see if you can gather more info like if it trips when they are all out etc , or middle of the night or even what the weather is like,,,,, if you find they are always awake and in the house then you need them to list what they were doing and what was plugged in, it can be a long winded task but you need to explain this to them and let them do all the recording of events .....
if possible and you have a good 2nd hand rcd unit then by pass the original and fit it (in enclosure if necessary) as this will tell you if rcd unit is faulty as they can fault intermittently too, so they may seem fine when testing etc but nuisance trip from time to time..

 

[nickblake]

im sure its the RCD thats faulty random tripping points to that , if it was an IR problem it would trip all the time and wouldnt stay on ,as wire puller has said less than 0.5 mohm then may bee

 

[monkeyelectric]

Well good luck, as the intermittent cause can sometimes be a bitch to locate especially if a trapped wire say under a floorboard that only shows as you walk over it, if only a couple of computers on then i wouldnt worry about it, see if you can gather more info like if it trips when they are all out etc , or middle of the night or even what the weather is like,,,,, if you find they are always awake and in the house then you need them to list what they were doing and what was plugged in, it can be a long winded task but you need to explain this to them and let them do all the recording of events .....
if possible and you have a good 2nd hand rcd unit then by pass the original and fit it (in enclosure if necessary) as this will tell you if rcd unit is faulty as they can fault intermittently too, so they may seem fine when testing etc but nuisance trip from time to time..

Cheers Darkwood, it is a pig to find when it intermittent, i once had a similar thing at another house and everything tested fine but narrowed it down while i was there they walked upstairs to go to the toilet and it tripped so i reset and it tripped again when they came back down the stairs, turned out a wire had been put through with the heating pipe which had warn through the insualtion but only created a dead short when the floorboard above was stood on. Unfortunately this one trips when they're all out and when they were away for the weekend or the middle of the night or at anytime it wants apparantly

 

[monkeyelectric]

im sure its the RCD thats faulty random tripping points to that , if it was an IR problem it would trip all the time and wouldnt stay on ,as wire puller has said less than 0.5 mohm then may bee

Cheers Nick, will try what Darkwood said and put a standalone unit in a seperate enclosure just to try it before i go to the expense of buying a starbreaker

 

[nickblake]

without a doubt an RCD fault

 

[nickblake]

i have had the same fault 3 times recently checked every thing and scratched my head new RCD and not been back since

 

[optician]

We have recently come across a similar problem, with no answers yet. We replaced a 100ma rcd, up front on a TT system which was tripping out weekly.
Replaced it with 30ma which started tripping out imediately and irritatingly, ittermittantly and without consistancy. Would not trip at x1 & x5, so like you guys, thought faulty rcd.
Went back later with new rcd and having checked my meter. New rcd, very same problem.
Ok, if there is an earth leakage fault, yes the rcd will trip but surely when you test it it would trip? These are just not tripping under test conditions! can anyone explain? Please.
We put the 100ma back on for now.

 

[Darkwood]

You say your on a tt system are you near to the sub-station by any chance this may cause you issues also believe it or not street lights etc have been known to cause tripping but they are easier to work out due to the lights timings

 

[optician]

Thanks Darkwood, one of my spark colleagues found some info on interference from sub-stations nearby, which suggests that the harmonics cause a dc component in the supply which as we know from the de-loc principle stops the rcd tripping. And causes nuisance tripping! Does any one know more about this possible cause and its remedy?

 

[sparkswillfly]

could be your got more than one appliance giving leakage ie cooker 15ma then then fridge kick in giving another 12 ma causing rcd to let go