Lost power but NO RCBO tripped

[Kash]

Oh just thought of another thing which will add further to the plot.

my nest smoke alarms

They're isolators, just switches,...…... they don't auto trip.

ok so that really confusing. If they don’t trip then I’m surprised a flick on and off made it work - and more concerning as well.
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send your post code and I'll discuss with my Son, I'm all for helping out when I can s\despite what others may think, travel costs only my tome is free, or maybe a Maccy Dees on the way home

Sent you a PM

 

[Pretty Mouth]

If the main isolator in the CU did trip what would cause it to trip? And why didn’t the isolator before it trip.

from the main supply I have an isolator, then the tails go from there to the main CU, but even though nothing tripped I only flicked the isolator in the CU. So my question now is, what causes an isolator to trip, and why didn’t the isolator prior not trip also?

Sometimes an RCD may be fitted as a main switch, and when some RCDs trip, the switch moves to a latched position, halfway between on and off. As per voltigern's post above, to reset you have to switch it to the off position, then on. I suspect this might have happened in your case.

Why the downstream RCBO didn't trip first we can't say for now, but a photo of your board showing all breakers may help us advise

 

[Vortigern]

If it is not the switch thing (main isolators don't trip unless they are RCD type) then it is quite likely a loose connection which if so should be attended to tout suite

 

[Kash]

ok so I am back home now, see photo attached of CU. The big main isolator on the right, is the ONLY switch i turned off/on.

The rest of them are as they were before.

External Socket we switch off when not being used, spare (emtpy), and Car charger is not connected either.

 

[static zap]

Christmas is a time for peak demands ,that will discover "Problem" connections... an expert will know several suspects.
(without disturbing other things unnecessarily)

likely a loose connection which if so should be attended to tout suite

 

[Kash]

Christmas is a time for peak demands ,that will discover "Problem" connections... an expert will know several suspects.
(without disturbing other things unnecessarily)

yeah I don’t want to be messing about with it. Will arrange electrician to come and have a look after new year

 

[Lister1987]

Probably barking up the wrong tree here but those Henley/connector blocks look odd, the wires coming out at least; outer 2 appear to go to the switch fuse, inner 2 to the isolator - would have thought it'd be 2 left, 2 right ,but then I remembered its line & neutral so should it not be a case of 1 & 3 to switch fuse (or isolator) and 2&4 to either the isolator (or switch fuse) as it stands you've got 1&4 used together at the switch fuse and 2&3 at the isolator.

As I say I'm probably wrong but it didn't look right to me.

 

[Kash]

Probably barking up the wrong tree here but those Henley/connector blocks look odd, the wires coming out at least; outer 2 appear to go to the switch fuse, inner 2 to the isolator - would have thought it'd be 2 left, 2 right ,but then I remembered its line & neutral so should it not be a case of 1 & 3 to switch fuse (or isolator) and 2&4 to either the isolator (or switch fuse) as it stands you've got 1&4 used together at the switch fuse and 2&3 at the isolator.

As I say I'm probably wrong but it didn't look right to me.

I think your confusing what is happening, there are two tails coming from the meter to the bottom of each Henly block - live/neutral. So I have a live henly and a neutral henly, then I have two tail coming out of the top of each henly - one live and one neutral goes to the main house Isolator the to the main cu and the and the others goto the outhouse isolator then off to the outhouse CU.

when the engineer was installing he was explaining all of this so I remember it quite well. I work in IT sector and have do infrastructure architecture for large data centres (Savvis, Level3, etc...) so am always fascinated with all this stuff.

 

[marconi]

Kash: I have a few friends who are policemen and detectives. I once asked why they seem to ask the same question over and over again. The reason is that it prompts or forces folk to think deeper and remember finer detail so when they do answer one more time it often adds to the earlier story/explanation/description as to what happened or what they did or saw or said or heard - etcetera. May I ask you then, in a similar vein to describe again - as if to a detective - what happened and what you did? Add some context too if you can eg: what loads were on at the time?

 

[Kash]

Kash: I have a few friends who are policemen and detectives. I once asked why they seem to ask the same question over and over again. The reason is that it prompts or forces folk to think deeper and remember finer detail so when they do answer one more time it often adds to the earlier story/explanation/description as to what happened or what they did or saw or said or heard - etcetera. May I ask you then, in a similar vein to describe again - as if to a detective - what happened and what you did? Add some context too if you can eg: what loads were on at the time?

LOL - sure ill go through the details step by step

1) Mrs turned the iron, but no light, so I thought the switch was off, went to turn it on, but it was on
2) Kids coming running in saying wifi isnt working
3) At this point I thought maybe electric tripped, I checked lights to if it was just sockets, but lights were not working either.
4) Went downstairs to check fuses, and noticed, nothing was tripped, even the mains was in the "on" position.
5) At this point I thought something outside must have happened. (I check around the kitchen, Oven time, microwave time were all off).
6) After about 10 mins, noticing that no one is outside asking each other if their electricity had gone, I thought why not flip the mains switch in the CU off/on - as soon as I did this everything came on.
7) I then went round setting the clocks on microwave, oven etc...
8) At this point, I went to go to the outhouse to check computer equipment, and noticed they were on? I was wondering, why they were on, I checked the uptime, and it said 32days.
9) Now I am really confused that the main house CU went off (without any signs of a trip) but he outhouse was running.

Thats everything

 

[davesparks]

Probably barking up the wrong tree here but those Henley/connector blocks look odd, the wires coming out at least; outer 2 appear to go to the switch fuse, inner 2 to the isolator - would have thought it'd be 2 left, 2 right ,but then I remembered its line & neutral so should it not be a case of 1 & 3 to switch fuse (or isolator) and 2&4 to either the isolator (or switch fuse) as it stands you've got 1&4 used together at the switch fuse and 2&3 at the isolator.

As I say I'm probably wrong but it didn't look right to me.

It doesn't matter, the service connector blocks are just commoning blocks and don't have any specific terminal designations. Whilst it would be nice for each one to be connected in logical order it doesn't make any difference functionally.

The bigger question as far as that isolator is concerned is why the smaller CU has been connected before the DP isolator? The whole point of having a seperate isolator fitted is to be able to isolate the whole installation from the incoming supply.

 

[Kash]

It doesn't matter, the service connector blocks are just commoning blocks and don't have any specific terminal designations. Whilst it would be nice for each one to be connected in logical order it doesn't make any difference functionally.

The bigger question as far as that isolator is concerned is why the smaller CU has been connected before the DP isolator? The whole point of having a seperate isolator fitted is to be able to isolate the whole installation from the incoming supply.

If you are talking about the small left hand side CU that’s just another isolator for the outhouse CU.

this wasdone so I could stop either CU supply independently. I believe it’s in a meta box because the armoured cabled to be installed properly needs a proper casing to connected onto via a gland.

 

[ChipFanDave]

You have computers that run for 32 days and no UPS ?

 

[Kash]

You have computers that run for 32 days and no UPS ?

Yes I have three servers and NAS. UPS are overrated for what they do and I don’t have mission critical stuff, I can rebuild the entire setup in an hour, it is all automated build and deploy.

 

[ipf]

The bigger question as far as that isolator is concerned is why the smaller CU has been connected before the DP isolator? The whole point of having a seperate isolator fitted is to be able to isolate the whole installation from the incoming supply.

Come on dave, think about it…….it's just another isolator doing the same thing for part of the installation...fused down.

 

[davesparks]

If you are talking about the small left hand side CU that’s just another isolator for the outhouse CU.

this wasdone so I could stop either CU supply independently. I believe it’s in a meta box because the armoured cabled to be installed properly needs a proper casing to connected onto via a gland.

Yes I'm talking about the small CU to the left which has been connected before the plastic supply isolator so that you have no single point of isolation for the entire installation, defeating the object of having the plastic isolator fitted in the first place.

You can isolate each CU via their main switch independantly without that isolator,
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Come on dave, think about it…….it's just another isolator doing the same thing for part of the installation...fused down.

I'm thinking about it and can't see it.
It's also not fused, that is just a wylex REC2 100A DP switch in a plastic box

 

[Kash]

Yes I'm talking about the small CU to the left which has been connected before the plastic supply isolator so that you have no single point of isolation for the entire installation, defeating the object of having the plastic isolator fitted in the first place.

You can isolate each CU via their main switch independantly without that isolator,
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I'm thinking about it and can't see it.
It's also not fused, that is just a wylex REC2 100A DP switch in a plastic box

??‍ Honestly don’t know it’s how it was

Yes I'm talking about the small CU to the left which has been connected before the plastic supply isolator so that you have no single point of isolation for the entire installation, defeating the object of having the plastic isolator fitted in the first place.

You can isolate each CU via their main switch independantly without that isolator,
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I'm thinking about it and can't see it.
It's also not fused, that is just a wylex REC2 100A DP switch in a plastic box

no idea mate, I mean I could switch both off and isolating both CU from any supply? The only time I think that would ever need to happen would of changing CU? Which fingers crossed would be never

 

[ipf]

I'm thinking about it and can't see it.
It's also not fused, that is just a wylex REC2 100A DP switch in a plastic box

That's feeding the main CU. Your 'small CU to the left' is isolation for the outhouse....fused, I'll wager.......and I'd sooner have that as isolation than a cheap plastic one.

 

[Kash]

That's feeding the main CU. Your 'small CU to the left' is isolation for the outhouse....fused, I'll wager.......and I'd sooner have that as isolation than a cheap plastic one.

Yep that one is fused I believe

 

[OnlQQker]

1) Mrs turned the iron, but no light, so I thought the switch was off, went to turn it on, but it was on You'll be surprised what they will do to get out of doing the housework
2) Kids coming running in saying wifi isnt working This is actually a great way of finding out how many kids are in the house

Not that I know much but have you tried the iron since?