Discuss Is something burning? in the Industrial Electrician Talk area at ElectriciansForums.net

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High_Voltage!

Hey - There's some weird **** going down at my house - From Exploding lamps to blowing bulbs but this last thing has got me a little concerned.

Today when I was downstairs playing a computer game (Rez) whilst I was sitting down all of a sudden the power tripped. I thought ok, there must be a power cut or water had touched the kettle lead as I seen water next to the kettle lead but failed to tell anyone. Anyway as I went to check the street, I noticed it was just our house that was out, dam! Popped into the garage and flipped the trip swith back up but it wouldn't stay on. So went though every switch flippin them one by one till eventually they all went back up.

However when I went upstairs it smelt like something had burnt out (It was that electrical smell I got when my lamp / iron had blown) :eek: But I can't find the source :confused: Everything in my room where the smell was strongest still works and nothing smells of burning. The only thing I can think of is the airing cupboard right next to my room but our heaters still work.

Any ideas?


I should add that the burning smell is not present at the moment, just earlier. - Will it actually make a difference if I don't find the source - Is something likely to happen?
 
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Sounds like something somewhere has overheated and caused some insulation to melt, hnce the burning smell.

Do you have a split load board? What tripped, the RCD or the main switch?

The fact that the power tripped is a good thing as it protects you and your posessions. Just switching it straight back on isn't the best idea in the world without first understanding what the problem was.

If it trips out again, isolate all circuits, switch the RCD or main switch back on and then switch each circuit on in turn. Hopefully the faulty circuit should cause another trip when you switch it back on. This should help you determine which circuit the fault is on. Once you've determined this you can then start investigating further. It sounds like you've sort of done this but from your description I guess you just swithed them all off then on until it tripped no longer.

TBH, I'd get an electrician in if you're at all unsure what you're looking for. It's your life youre talkng so if you're at all unsure then get someone out.

Also, you say some weird things have been going on such as expolding lamp and blowing bulbs - so you mean table lamps do you? Plugged into a socket rather than the ones on the main lighting circuits? What about the blowing bulbs? They on the main lighting circuits or in table lamps etc? Do you get any flickering lights, either on the main lighting circuit or in table lamps?

Regards
 
Hi,

Firstly thanks for taking the time to reply.

Anyway, the house is pretty modern <20 years old so we have a split load board with both a main off and on switch and a test button.

When I went to the board to investigate, unfortunately all the switches were still up (e.g. lights 1, lights 2, cooker, heater, sockets 1, sockets 2) just the main switch had gone down, which tbh normally goes down when a bulb anyway.

Thing is, I've practically checked all my possessions plugged in and can't source where the smell came from. I can't even find the soot marks - The place I'm thinking is something in the airing cupboard, maybe the fuse box? But the heaters still work for now. Or something internal (?)

Anyway to answer your last question, By weird **** I mean the following - A table lap that just went pop, soot up the wall and all the wires inside the plug gone - although I guess the wires may have touched each other but this seems highly unlikely considering there were still pieces of metal wire screwed into each prong :confused: , losing about 3 tv's in the space of a few months.
As for blowing bulbs, I mean the ceiling ones. They always seem to go together. Anyway I replaced some with those energy saving ones but they never stay on one setting they always flicker between different levels of brightness - But to be honest I just thought they were meant to do that and the rest just coincidental.
 
When I went to the board to investigate, unfortunately all the switches were still up ......just the main switch had gone down

Hhmm, strange. The main switch is not an overcurrent or earth leakage device - just a switch and would not be tripped by a fault. Do you mean the RCD had tripped and MCBs were still on?
 
OK this is what my board looks like:

Is something burning? {filename} | ElectriciansForums.net


All the circuit switches were still up, the only one down was the main off / on switch - I'm guessing it has some master over-ride system as it includes a test switch too?
 

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