Electric sockets tripping

[Lweisrick]

My electric sockets keep tripping, this happens every hour or so after flicking the trip switch. This happens even when nothing is plugged in at all and the sockets are even switched off, I've done nothing to disturb the wires and taken all the sockets off to check for damp and loose connections and all fine, just don't know what the problem is

 

[Dannyboybl00]

Is it the breaker tripping, or the RCD? Or even the RCBO if you have them?

 

[Lweisrick]

Tbh I'm not sure I'm a DIY guy, it says rcd on the fuse box box and it just trips the plug sockets

 

[buzzlightyear]

Best call out your local spark.

 

[Lweisrick]

Best call out your local spark.

Already have pal, and he plugged this socket into each plug and said all was fine on the sockets, is there another way to check before ripping up all the floor boards

 

[James]

That is poor service.
If you had asked him to find the fault, then he should have found the fault.

Can you post a pic of your consumer unit?

 

[telectrix]

Already have pal, and he plugged this socket into each plug and said all was fine on the sockets, is there another way to check before ripping up all the floor boards

you need an electrician with a brain. not the one that said all is OK, when it obviously is not.

sounds like he just plugged in a socket and see. he might make a good employee for british Gas.

 

[Lweisrick]

Best I can do, did I say it takes about an hour or so after I swith it back on for it to trip again, even when all appliances are not plugged in

 

[westward10]

If one of those mcbs are tripping you have a problem. It is obviously intermittent but whatever the problem, it is generating enough fault current to make it trip. Do you have central heating on that circuit.

 

[James]

Can’t read the labels, it’s a long shot but, do you have an immersion heater?
If so, turn it off at the switch next to the hot water tank.

But this really needs fault finding by a real electrician with experience in faults.

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

Even if it’s intermittent then it’s going to have a IR that’s pretty low on one of those circuits. If it trips every hour, I recon a decent spark could find it within a hour through methodical testing.
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Got any outside lights off the socket circuit?

 

[Grant1987]

Even if it’s intermittent then it’s going to have a IR that’s pretty low on one of those circuits. If it trips every hour, I recon a decent spark could find it within a hour through methodical testing.
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Got any outside lights off the socket circuit?

Yes he definitely needs a competent spark to fault find, like the guys have said turn off immersion heater. The element is high probability of faults if you have one. Water in outside lights. Also extension leads they are one of the main culprits for intermittent faults

 

[Lucien Nunes]

To clarify, although there is a label mentioning RCD testing proecdure on the board, there are no RCDs. The breaker that is tripping is an MCB, equivalent to a fuse. For it to trip there must be either an overload (e.g. too many appliances) or a short-circuit (e.g. wires touching together). If everything is unplugged and there is no undiscovered 'herbal laboratory' in your loft that the circuit is powering, then there is most likely a damaged cable that is intermittently shorting. Unlike an RCD trip caused by modest leakage to earth, the heavy current required to trip an MCB makes the fault a potential fire risk due to arcing and overheating. You should not keep resetting the MCB; the fault must be found and rectified even if the MCB stops tripping as it will otherwise remain a risk.

Anyone who looks for the cause of an MCB trip using a socket tester isn't an electrician.

 

[pc1966]

If it is a properly working 32A MCB for your sockets tripping in an hour or so that manes either a constant 40A or thereabouts is going astray, or occasionally something is shorting out

Both are serious issues that should be found and fixed by someone competent (not who you got earlier!).

When you close the breaker, does the electricity meter start showing a lot more power being consumed (dial rotating quickly, or LED flashing more rapidly) within a minute or two?

 

[Vortigern]

When did this start to happen?
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Given the nature of the brand of that box I would not be surprised to find the MCB itself is faulty. So I suppose the cooker is on that same circuit? if so did you switch it off as well. Any sneaky sockets you forgot about in the garage?

 

[radiohead]

Ignore the actual issue and get an EICR, apparently that's the way to do it.

 

[pc1966]

Ignore the actual issue and get an EICR, apparently that's the way to do it.

I'm not sure the original poster will understand the humour!

 

[Vortigern]

If you do get an electrician, you must expect to see him dragging some wires out of the box and doing some tests to check the wiring for shorts. He may find something which will then lead him to go around the sockets splitting the wires to assist him/her to narrow it down. Fault finding is time consuming and therefore expensive. I think a decent spark should take no more that a couple of hours at most, costing £70-100. Then there will be the remedy which may mean replacing a part of your socket circuit, again a couple of hours plus mats. So say around £200 tops I guess to sort it worst case scenario! Might be something simple in which case a call out fee, hope your is the latter.

 

[Lweisrick]

Fingers crossed this was the problem just swopped it over

 

[Pete999]

Ignore the actual issue and get an EICR, apparently that's the way to do it.

A cheap shot Mate, unworthy of you, even with the laughing face.

 

[Lweisrick]

So I'm guessing it won't be that with what your saying?

 

[radiohead]

With the current required to trip an mcb I would expect to see some serious thermal damage if the JB was the culprit, but it does appear corroded as a result of moisture so worth a shot.

 

[Pete999]

With the current required to trip an mcb I would expect to see some serious thermal damage if the JB was the culprit, but it does appear corroded as a result of moisture so worth a shot.

what even a cheap one?

 

[marconi]

Something like this may have been happening:

https://www.electriciansforums.net/...-how-this-happened.181313/page-2#post-1594519

 

[radiohead]

what even a cheap one?

A cheap what?

 

[Lucien Nunes]

So I'm guessing it won't be that with what your saying

Like Radiohead I would expect to see visible arc damage if the fault is tripping a 32A MCB. Each time it trips there will be a flash and a bang that scorches the surrounding insulation. If there's no sign of that on the cables at the junction box, or within the junction box moulding itself, it probably isn't the culprit.

Because of the risks associated with fireworks going on inside your walls / floors, I would strongly recommend actual scientific troubleshooting rather than trial and error on this one. If it turns out to be something harmless, all well and good. But resetting the MCB and waiting for more fireworks seems a needless gamble.

 

[radiohead]

One of the potential dangers of continually resetting an mcb is the high current surges can eventually blow the fault clear, leading to the impression that the problem has gone away, when in fact considerable damage has been done to the conductors at point of the fault.

 

[Lweisrick]

OK thanks got another electrition coming tomorrow now, thanks to you all

 

[Vortigern]

@Lweisrick it would be interesting to know what the problem turns out to be.

 

[Lweisrick]

I will keep you all informed ?