Ground floor lighting trips out mcb

Post new thread

Currently reading:
Ground floor lighting trips out mcb

Discuss Ground floor lighting trips out mcb in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

B

Biggy

-
Reaction score
20
Hi everyone,

My first post but straight in with a couple of issues.

I'll start with a 6amp MCB that keeps tripping out relating to ground floor lights.
For your info:

There is 10 x 3w led recessed lights in Kitchen, 8 x 3w led recessed lights ,plus a main central Led light (approx 100watt equivalent ) in the room next to the kitchen and then the same amount of lights and Main central light in the Back room. I would say the combined wattage including two outside lights (40watt each) will be around 480w so let's call it 500watt on the ground floor.

From my understanding a 60w bulb draws around 0.5amp so in effect 30 of the 60w bulbs (around 1800watt combined ) would require a 15amp breaker which would be comfortable, so based on this theory is the 6amp MCB actually overload on 500watts on Ground floor and this tripping the breaker .

The breaker does not trip immediately as can take 5-10mins sometimes longer, and in some instances it has tripped even when ground floor lights have been OFF.

The joist spaces have all been insulated with rockwool if this makes any difference as I want to eliminate any possibility before I start questioning my electrician who advises that maybe I should fit a 15amp breaker in as he feels 6amp is less power for 30 odd lights .

Can anyone shed LIGHT on this :)

I'll come to the second issue after I can get a solution to this.

Sorry for the lengthy explanation but I know there's nothing more frustrating than not arming knowledgeable people will full info and expecting solutions. Hope I've not missed anything out.

Hope to get a few responses and guidance as I have basic understanding of electrics.

Thanks
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Biggy,
Your reply #60 stated:
"Also he tacked in the wires against the wall in a couple places using nails which were then bent over the wires to hold them in place but I did check and they were loose enough just to hold the wires in place so not cutting into any wires."

That alone tells me he was not a suitable electrician. No professional electrician would use bent nails to restrain wiring - proper insulated cable clips and cleats are cheap, easy to fix and every professional electrician carries a suitable selection in their van/vehicle.

I realise why you had a knowledgeable family member come over during the holiday period and see if they could help - and they did. BUT, and a big BUT, they have now changed what the installer did... I would keep very quiet about that, if I were you. It could give the installer a let-out. You needed a professional, qualified and formally approved and insured, electrician to make any judgement. I am retired from day-to-day work and so cannot certify installations - but I work at Government and international levels. I am often asked about wiring issues by friends and family - but never now actually do any practical work (apart from in my own house) - although I could easily and safely do it. It is just not legal to do so. I advise what the problem is and tell them to get a currently qualified and certified electrician to come in and report on what they find and correct it (or quote to correct it).

The law is often not "real justice" in complex situations. I have been there and have several 'bloodied T-shirts' (not real blood!).

Leave well alone. Get in a reputable electrical contractor or a Local Authority designated test-qualified electrician to report on the state of the wiring. The more you fiddle, the deeper your 'hole' becomes. I know it is difficult over the holiday period

I am reading a book at the moment; a knife assult victim was found by an ordinary person. He removed the kni
fe, staunched the blood flow, but it was too late and the victim died. He called the police who found his fingerprints on the knife and the victims's blood on his hands and his clothes. Although innocent, he was immediately the main police suspect for the murder.

Please think about all of this very carefully. It is deadly serious.
Best wishes for 2019
Alasdair
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Harry_P said:
Well that's what I would do and it would work for me. What don't you agree with and why?
Click to expand...

From the vague and inconsistent information from the OP it "suggests" there is no pattern to if and when the MCB trips ....... so an IR test on the circuit could simply come back as "good"

A water leak could do what he's describing .......

That's all
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Murdoch said:
From the vague and inconsistent information from the OP it "suggests" there is no pattern to if and when the MCB trips ....... so an IR test on the circuit could simply come back as "good"

A water leak could do what he's describing .......

That's all
Click to expand...
A water leak would be identified with the IR test if there was moisture between cores the IR test would indicate this
From the information given I am certain the fault would be identified within an hour.
1. Global IR test to identify if it's L/N or N/E or L/E fault

2. Identify which circuit has got the fault that you found in step 1

3. Half split the faulty circuit until you locate the faulty part of the circuit

Should be done in an hour and back in the van and back on the forum
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
alasdairp said:
.

I am reading a book at the moment; a knife assult victim was found by an ordinary person. He removed the kni
fe, staunched the blood flow, but it was too late and the victim died. He called the police who found his fingerprints on the knife and the victims's blood on his hands and his clothes. Although innocent, he was immediately the main police suspect for the murder.

Please think about all of this very carefully. It is deadly serious.
Best wishes for 2019
Alasdair
Click to expand...

Any self respecting competent first aider, knows you don’t remove any foreign object from the body of a injured party, can cause worse bleeding. Instead you make up one of those circular bandages, that you would have handy in your pocket, and place around the wound.

Thought I’d just mention that, ‘case anybody comes across that scenario tonight. :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
@MurkyD - stop with the nonsense assumptions . If you don't know what your talking about then don't reply to my questions.

I have NOT done the wiring and sparky is NOT my mate, as I said he was recommended from a work colleague who told me he is a qualified electrician its that simple.

I have provided as much info as I can remember, if there's anything missed I will add it if I remember .

@Alisdairp, thanks I'll look into what you mentioned.

My friend who came yesterday I can be confident he if anything made sure the CU breakers are properly and securely aligned and all screws tightened , more than the sparky could have done.
I rang the idiot an hour ago and he said he's round the corner only to find he won't answer his calls again so that makes me more certain than ever he knows he has messed up and doesn't want the headache of having to rip up floor boards if that's what it may take.

I'll just pop over to the tester now and see if he has mysteriously disappeared too.

I am a genuine guy with no need to provide false information to you guys , at the end of the day me, my wife and 5 small children will be moving into the house and the bloody last thing I want is dodgy electrics unsafe for my family.

MarkyD I don't need your input thankyou very much
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ok, an insulation test could come back as a pass.
I had similar recently with a light circuit, the only time it tripped was during the extremely cold weather, the cable contracted and it got tight around the metal on the joists (in the loft). The rest of the time the cable didn't touch the metal and passed the insulation test.

We know electricity is a force of its own at times and sometimes can even seem magical.

good luck finding the fault hope its sorted soon
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Biggy said:
Little update, I got family member who knows a little on electrics to come give a view on it whilst I'm waiting and he has tried the following:

Next thing he did was swop upstairs 6amp breaker to downstairs and see if upstairs trips to eliminate faulty breaker. The lights this time stayed on for 1hr 40 mins before I decided to switch them off and go home.
Returned this morning to find the trip had switched for ground floor, so this has definitely eliminated a faulty breaker which isn't the case.

He will check all switches for loose wiring today and maybe disconnect all led spotlights and just leave the two main central lights in each room wired up and then see if they trip, as he thinks if they don't trip then the problem may well be with the cheap transformers and may have to replace all transformers with maybe 5watt capacity to sufficiently supply the 3w led lights .

Only baffling thing is they can still trip whilst lights are off so somebody here mentioned it rules out the drivers .

As for the installer whether he is NIC approved , the answer is I am not sure but is there a way to check online or somewhere , I know the tester is as he provided the certificate .
Click to expand...

I thought you were referring to YOUR home?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote 0 Downvote
It is my home. I will move into this one from my current one as have had extension work done to make it bigger for us all.
The sparky has done all the rewire from light, sockets , outside sockets ,outside lights, extractor fans, smoke alarm, heat alarm to each floor.

Wiring fed to system boiler tank , etc .

Anyway, I'm stressed now so want to get back to you guys towards end of the week whilst I try and get more progress so will reply again after New Year.

Thanks and wish you all well.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Biggy said:
It is my home. I will move into this one from my current one as have had extension work done to make it bigger for us all.
The sparky has done all the rewire from light, sockets , outside sockets ,outside lights, extractor fans, smoke alarm, heat alarm to each floor.

Wiring fed to system boiler tank , etc .

Anyway, I'm stressed now so want to get back to you guys towards end of the week whilst I try and get more progress so will reply again after New Year.

Thanks and wish you all well.
Click to expand...

Ok ............. so this isn't an existing installation, its a complete rewire where a "sparky" has done the installation and a "tester" has done the testing. This for a start doesn't inspire confidence.

You need to stand firm and communicate with these individuals in writing ................. if they choose not to respond , I recommend you with hold any payments due AND also consider reporting them to local trading standards ..........

If may be prudent to ask around for another spark ......... sounds like you may need one and make sure that they are able to test and certificate - they can't issue a Part P certificate nor an EIC but they should be able to do some comparison readings with that EIC you have.

Out of interest have either of these individuals mentioned Part P?

Please keep us updated.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hi All,

Another update this side of the year now, after unscrewing a couple switches and outside lights which seemed to be fine, we just moved a little wiring within the switches to avoid them all touching and overlapping each other too much and the same with the outside lights ( this prob makes no difference anyway bit just to be sure ) . Also unclipped and left to hang the spotlights in the main living room only and its been 5-6 days and not tripped the breaker.

I did use lights whilst working there maybe an hour or two and they seem fine for now.

It now could be possible that the living room ceiling may have been damp as the plaster boarders mentioned they had a little leak in the bottom of the mixing bucket which caused water from the floor above to seep through the living room ceiling and in between this there was rockwool insulation.

This will need to be checked when I reach in and see if I can feel whether its damp, so in meantime the spotlights are dangling down and it seems to have stopped the tripping.

I've not had much time over the Xmas and new year period to get much done and I will now check with EIC if the tester was registered as I believe the certificate number on the paperwork given should be logged online at some point.

I will refit the spots some time this week and check the trip switch again.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Sorry everyone I've not had time to get anything done , I've had a terrible 2018 and thought 2019 will give me a new start only to find my wife has a thyroid cancerous lump in her throat and is going in for a op first thing Monday morning, news just came yesterday and she is being fast tracked .

I won't be around for a few weeks I suppose until we can get over this hurdle and everything is on hold now as nothing's more important to me than her and my 5 children.

Please pray it all goes well for her

Thanks to you all for your input. See you soon I hope.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
New posts

Reply to Ground floor lighting trips out mcb in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Similar Threads

S
  • Question
Lights RCBO keeps tripping randomly
Replies
8
Views
3K
sparkler
S
S
  • Question
Lighting MCB keeps tripping after changing the kitchen light
Replies
11
Views
1K
pc1966
P
E
  • Question
Outdoor and indoor lighting on same circuit
Replies
15
Views
4K
PeakSteve
PeakSteve
E
  • Question
Hall Lighting with Architectural Dimmer
Replies
2
Views
764
Mike Johnson
Mike Johnson
G
  • Question
Strange issue - Who can solve my 'tripping' challenge?
Replies
25
Views
2K
Penguin
P
Tiling Forum

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

YOUR Unread Posts

UK Tiling Forum
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by untold.media Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
    • Tiling Advice
    Back
    Top
    AdBlock Detected

    We get it, advertisements are annoying!

    Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

    I've Disabled AdBlock