Discuss Hello! Need help :-) in the The Welcome Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum
Head straight to the main forums to chat by click here:   American Electrical Advice Forum

L

Liz Steel

Hi there,

I've joined this forum to see if I can get some help with an electrical problem I'm having with my home. We've already had two electrical companies out to have a look, and they've both been stumped!

We have a Honeywell CM927 Wireless heating control system, and about half the time it starts the heating, the electrics trip! The heating is on a different circuit, it's the main switch for the sockets and some of the lights in the house that trips. This is annoying since we can't actually program it to come on when we're not around, since the fridge/freezer is on this circuit.

The heating system and the main circuit boards are in the garage. There is also a light switch in the garage that trips the electrics when it is turned off.

Any ideas about what this could be?

Thanks!

Liz.
 
Is it a split board with 2 RCD's protecting 2 rows of 'breakers' ?

So is the heating taking out 1/2 of the consumer unit?
 
Is it a split board with 2 RCD's protecting 2 rows of 'breakers' ?

So is the heating taking out 1/2 of the consumer unit?


Yes, it's the top RCD that is tripping, and the bottom half has the heating and a load of other stuff on it.
 
Sounds like it's an RCD Residual Current Device, that's tripping. if it is, then you could narrow the problem down to the circuit with the fault. Didn't read your last paragraph, looks like you have a fault on the lighting circuit, which trips the RCD which covers the heating as well as the lights, my advice would be to get an Electrician in to do some testing, could be something simple and easy to rectify, one of the forum members in your area may be able to help you out.
 
I've already had two electricians in to look, and they've done testing and said it's all fine!

Plus the RCD that's tripping doesn't cover the heating circuit, that's on the other part of the box. So when it trips, there's nothing that's changing on any of the circuits that RCD covers.

Since it's a wireless unit that's tripping it, we thought maybe it was the wireless signal that was causing it to trip?

I think the light tripping it might be a different issue, although it does only happen with the light is turned OFF!
 
Hi - please excuse my dumb question, but can you repeat the fault at will? I'm thinking a simple one to try is to remove everything from the outlets on the RCD that trips and try to trigger the fault.
 
It won't be the wireless system that is the issue. The wireless system isn't part of the mains supply. It only remotely triggers the boiler to come on so its related to act of the power going to the boiler.
The light tripping the RCD should be an easy issue to investigate and resolve and I can't see why the 2 electricians didn't take that on.
To me it looks like a sensitive RCD or a neutral issue. I wonder if the electricians did actual RCD tests (not just pushing the button) did they check the actual tripping current and time?
 
No, we moved in to the house in January, and it's been happening since then. I don't know if it happened before then.

We had a company come out and look at it earlier in the year, not long after we moved in, but they were terrible! They sent three different people to look at it, and they came up with three different ideas on what it could be! The last guy then said that the RCD needed replacing, but he had to order a new one in, but then never got back to us again, even after we emailed and called them repeatedly.

So we got another company to come and have a look last week, but that guy seemed as stumped as the first lot. He said he's going to come back and try replacing the RCD to see if that works, but he's very busy, so in the meantime I thought I'd ask on here.

The fault happens about half the time the heating is turned on, so it can be reproduced. It also happens every time the light is turned off.

The second guy did do tests for the tripping current and time, and he said it was all OK. He's going to come back and do some more testing though, so maybe that will reveal the problem.
 
I'm sure @telectrix would cover that area, I've tagged him so hopefully he will see the thread and pop his head in.
 
Well the obvious first step would have to been swapping the 2 RCDs over wouldn't it? If they are the same and the fault is unchanged then its not the RCD. If the fault goes or moves to the other RCD protected circuits then its the RCD.
Obviously changing the RCDs over needs an electrician but its a quick simple test.
The other thing I'd look at is the cable runs of the circuits between the two RCD protected banks. Could it be possible that a load in one circuit could induce a small current in one of the other circuits and cross trip?
 
I think it just needs a logical approach.

Every circuits needs testing/verifying its healthy.

Maybe a picture will help to show exactly what is tripping

Hopefully there is a spark on here in your area.
 
Thank you everyone for your replies.

I've got the second electrician coming out next Tuesday, so I will let him know your suggestions and see what he says. If we can't find the fault, then I'll post back on here and hopefully I can find someone else to help.
 
liz, if your guy can't sort it, come back to me via pm.
 

Reply to Hello! Need help :-) in the The Welcome Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

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
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
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