Just Had A Power Outage. Should I Be Concerned?

[chicat]

Just this Tuesday I had an electrician do an inspection and fixing and replacing some things.

Just today my house had a power outage.

Does anyone think this may have something to do with the inspection I had this Tuesday or was this just the usual appliances being overpowered (thus causing outage)? Thanks.

 

[Pete999]

Just this Tuesday I had an electrician do an inspection and fixing and replacing some things.

Just today my house had a power outage.

Does anyone think this may have something to do with the inspection I had this Tuesday or was this just the usual appliances being overpowered (thus causing outage)? Thanks.

Did you loose ALL of the electricity in your house?

 

[johnduffell]

just the usual appliances being overpowered

no, what actually tripped? can we have a photo if possible?
If it is usual for the circuit to be overloaded there's a problem with your installation. If it's the RCD tripping it may be a problem with an appliance.

 

[davesparks]

Did your neighbours also experience a power cut?

 

[chicat]

Pete999,
No, not all of the electricity. Most of the power was lost but not all per se. I remember my oven (and I think the light in my bathroom (where the box is located)) had power.

Johnduffel,
It doesn't happen too often so far. It was the RCD tripping. Flipped it back up now.

Davesparks,
I don't know because it was still sunny where the power outage happened. So I couldn't tell if my neighbours experienced a power outage or not. I don't think so, otherwise we wouldn't have needed to untrip the RCD. Usually if the whole neighbourhood experiences a power outage the power comes back on its own.

 

[Wilko]

Hi - if you've had your RCD trip and you've had to reset it there is likely to be a fault. It's possible it's an appliance or it can be the wiring that's faulty. Sounds like you need to call your Electrician back for a look.

 

[PEG]

Pete999,
No, not all of the electricity. Most of the power was lost but not all per se. I remember my oven (and I think the light in my bathroom (where the box is located)) had power.

Johnduffel,
It doesn't happen too often so far. It was the RCD tripping. Flipped it back up now.

Davesparks,
I don't know because it was still sunny where the power outage happened. So I couldn't tell if my neighbours experienced a power outage or not. I don't think so, otherwise we wouldn't have needed to untrip the RCD. Usually if the whole neighbourhood experiences a power outage the power comes back on its own.

Hi,what box is in the bathroom?

 

[chicat]

Wilko,
This is a stupid question but what is it that makes an appliance the cause of the power outage? Fuse overload? Too many appliances using up power?

Peg,
RCD Fuse board is what I meant.

 

[johnduffell]

in simple terms, an RCD compares the current flowing in the live and neutral and trips if they differ much. In normal circumstances it would be more or less identical as all the appliances use those conductors for power only.
However there is a third pin (earth) and also a lot of other conductive things around, including yourself, so if something is wrong thre are plenty of opportunities to find a current path another way. Obviously that's not a safe situation to be in.
If that happens, whether it be through the fixed wiring or through an appliance, the RCD will trip. This is to keep you safe and also indicate to you that there's a fault that may cause a danger so needs investigating.

 

[dmxtothemax]

QUOTE - [ what is it that makes an appliance the cause of the power outage? ]
Not always an overload, but with rcd's now days they sense leaks in electrical systems, imagine if you will a large water tank with a tiny pin hole in it, so that it still works as a tank, but just looses some water, the same thing applies to an electrical system and/or electrical appliances they can leak small amounts of power to ground. So possibly your system could have a small leak somewhere ?

 

[Wonderwall]

I would very much doubt it has anything to do with what your electrician has tested and by coincidence you have an appliance which has developed a small fault which your rcd is detecting.

 

[Pete999]

Pete999,
No, not all of the electricity. Most of the power was lost but not all per se. I remember my oven (and I think the light in my bathroom (where the box is located)) had power.

Johnduffel,
It doesn't happen too often so far. It was the RCD tripping. Flipped it back up now.

Davesparks,
I don't know because it was still sunny where the power outage happened. So I couldn't tell if my neighbours experienced a power outage or not. I don't think so, otherwise we wouldn't have needed to untrip the RCD. Usually if the whole neighbourhood experiences a power outage the power comes back on its own.

Does your CU (fuse board) have 2 RCDs?

 

[electric al]

What box is in the bathroom ?? Fuse board ?

 

[SparkyChick]

I would very much doubt it has anything to do with what your electrician has tested and by coincidence you have an appliance which has developed a small fault which your rcd is detecting.

Don't agree 100% with this. If it was a thorough inspection that included removing accessories, it could be the inspector pushed an accessory back into place and caused minor damage to say a neutral conductor that will randomly cause an N-E fault and consequently trip the RCD.

 

[Wilko]

Hi - as above, the RCD is checking no current is leaking to earth. It's an additional safety protection for us, because it's that current leakage that can be the cause of electric shock.

 

[telectrix]

recently fitted a RCD in my underpants. no leakage so far. told you i wasn't incontinent; senile maybe. .

 

[Octopus]

Back to the op .

Did the inspection flag any issues? How long was the spark in the house?

 

[chicat]

Back to the op .

Did the inspection flag any issues? How long was the spark in the house?

I'm not very technical when it comes to this, so I will try and explain things as clearly as I can.

When the electrician first came to try to diagnose and fix the power outage (was permanent then) a few months ago (this week Tuesday was his second visit), he told me something about the current in the second half of my house not being at a level as it should - he also remarked that this was something he expected from an old house but our house was only around 15 years old (he found this odd).

He also found the source of the power outage was in the kitchen. One of the sockets got some sort of moist (this socket was about a feet away from the stove). He replaced the socket and de-rated the socket circuit as a temporary fix (meaning I had to avoid using the washing machine, microwave, and kettle at the same time).

When he came back this Tuesday for an inspection, he found the wire (I think it was two wires stuck together) wasn't installed properly and was what caused the uneven current level as previously mentioned. He then briefly told me that in 2005 the Government had a law that prevents all builders from "doing whatever they want."

Before he left he told me that he will send me the test results and a certificate.

 

[mhar]

Hello Chicat,
It can be quite difficult knowing how to explain a technical issue to a non technical person. I hope that your last posting demonstrates that a poor job has been done explaining, not that a poor job has been done.
I am not sure if anyone here is going to have anything helpful to add without seeing the test results you have referred to, even then a visit to investigate is likely to be required.
How did you choose this electrician? The fact that you are posting may imply that you do not have much confidence in him.
If you are after a second opinion or a fresh pair of eyes then post your location to see if anyone on here is local to you

 

[chicat]

Mhar,
When we had a permanent power outage earlier this year I just called a service and he just happened to receive the job from his employer.

After the first visit he gave me his mobile number and months later I contacted him to arrange an inspection (after two previous unsuccessful arrangements with other electricians - one never turned up and one never gave me a time and just showed up without us preparing).

I didn't mean to show a lack of confidence in the electrician. I'm just frustrated that a power outage has happened even after an inspection (which only took place earlier this week) and I don't know what the problem is this time (going to investigate if it's just a faulty appliance). I'm living with my parents; they're old and don't have that much money, so any visit from an electrician would be at their inconvenience.

Personal annoyance aside, I have been looking around my house for a bit and noticed 3 (unused) sockets turned on. I believe they've been on for 5 days since Tuesday. Do you think they could be the reason why the RCD tripped?

Also I'm based in North Somerset, so 20 or so minutes away from Bristol. I can also post test results here when I get them, if that would help anyone here.

 

[johnduffell]

sounds like it was tripping originally as designed, due to a damp socket. In the process of testing it the electrician presumably discovered the ring was broken and has now repaired it.
If the tripping is still occurring, there could be water ingress into the same or into another socket. Perhaps water is coming down the wall from above, is there a shower or anything wet e.g. pipes above?. If it happens repeatedly, it's important to call someone competent to do some more testing.

 

[Dave OCD]

I don't normally say this, but reading through it sounds a lot like a wind up.

 

[Dave OCD]

Back to the op .

Did the inspection flag any issues? How long was the spark in the house?

Probably about 5' 9"

 

[Deleted member 9648]

If there's an RCD on an installation it is quite likely that nuisance tripping will be an occasional annoyance. It does not necessarily indicate a problem unless it is happening frequently or there is difficulty resetting the RCD.

 

[DPG]

Post the results when the electricians gets them to you.

 

[Pete999]

recently fitted a RCD in my underpants. no leakage so far. told you i wasn't incontinent; senile maybe. .

Kinky booger

 

[chicat]

Test results,

Results - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gwi6b21ps9lnbr4/AAACfxRJvohwQBouIZSzR0FOa?dl=0

 

[wildwest]

inspection usually followed by testing,
to ensure neutral not knicked putting back plate or something like that.
sounds reasonable , young electrician , rural location,
not sure though, something about the feet and the damp socket.
trust chicat ? download random file ?

 

[chicat]

You don't even need to download the images. Since I've used dropbox, you could just view them on the site.

 

[johnduffell]

The images are extremely slow, but I managed to get the first page and even I can tell it's a very poor report.
Just from first reading I doubt you have a 2 phase supply and if you had it wouldn't be possible to confirm polarity.
Also most of those C3s are rubbish, codes specify things that don't comply with the standards at the time. He's claiming that the board doesn't comply with the 16th edition standard because it's a 16th edition board? Fan extremely old that's a new one! And earth exported to garage is perfectly good design, assuming everything's bonded correctly.

 

[wildwest]

forgive old fool coming to terms with new technology, viewed images of the report on drop box and didn't contract any diseases.
theres a page not shown and some questions to be asked of the spark and/or his supervisor. The test results would indicate that there is no earth leakage fault on the system, did he go round and unplug all your appliances before he tested?

 

[chicat]

Yes, he did go round and unplug all appliances before testing.

 

[wildwest]

It is correct for the electrician to disconnect appliances before testing, he is testing for faults in the fixed wiring system.

It is possible there is an earth leakage fault in one of the appliances that is causing the RCD to trip.
These kind of faults can be tricky to identify since the faulty appliance need not be actually running or even switched on at the time, it need only be plugged in or otherwise connected to one of your socket circuits.

Class II appliances ( look for a square inside a square symbol on the information plate) do not have an earth connection and so can be ruled out , unless they are being used outside and have developed an earth connection of their own, for example, a pond pump.

Top culprits are machines that are wet inside and run on a program, i.e washing machine / dishwasher/ tumble dryer.

You might ask the electrician back to to check your appliances.
In the mean time you could unplug appliances that are not in use.
Make note of those that are plugged in when the trip recures.