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Steven07

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We've had a tiler in doing the kitchen floor and through no real fault of his own the floor flooded a little (stopcock issue). Was only surface water but its seemingly gotten around some wires.

Anyway, I came down and could instantly hear this electrical noise. Like a fuzz. Like something out of a movie when there's live wires around. Got down on hands and knees and there was the tiniest spark every 5-10 secs followed by smoke which had the kitchen full of a burning smell. Knew immediately from the sound alone that it was v dangerous. Turned the power off. How do we go about this?
 
Sounds like you should get someone in ASAP. Is there anything obvious such as connectors under the cupboards/kickbacks that may have got wet? Possibly sockets lying on the ground underneath them for appliances
 
Sounds like you should get someone in ASAP. Is there anything obvious such as connectors under the cupboards/kickbacks that may have got wet? Possibly sockets lying on the ground underneath them for appliances
No sockets but I think wires or cables running along the kickboards to the washing machine.
 
We've had a tiler in doing the kitchen floor and through no real fault of his own the floor flooded a little (stopcock issue). Was only surface water but its seemingly gotten around some wires.

Anyway, I came down and could instantly hear this electrical noise. Like a fuzz. Like something out of a movie when there's live wires around. Got down on hands and knees and there was the tiniest spark every 5-10 secs followed by smoke which had the kitchen full of a burning smell. Knew immediately from the sound alone that it was v dangerous. Turned the power off. How do we go about this?
Call an Electrician Steve
 
Can you give a more close range area of the uk you live in?
Someone on here might be nearby.
Thank you for your care. A fella came out there. Imagine.. After 5 on a Monday! Wire was knicked and water was getting in and short circuiting. Said the surface water on the floor would've been live and our fuse box is old and doesn't have RD stops or RC stops or something. Dangerous business!
 
You mean an RCD.

That would have tripped out almost instantly with that much moisture.
I think you've been lucky no one was injured.

Are you getting a quote to upgrade the fuseboard?
The guy the came out on such short notice was retired so he gave us an electricians number. Haven't got the quote yet. Another guy a year ago said it would be £1000 or so but don't know if that's an arm and a leg. We're in Northern Ireland btw
 
it will be a good few hundred quid.... but there may be underlying issues that need fixed before they can put in a new board that would add to the cost.
 
just out of curiosity, what are some common problems we might run into?
Most common problems are things wrong with the current electrics that are not obvious without testing, but are potentially dangerous and would fail any new installation. For example:
  • Poor insulation resistance readings. Can be damp in junction boxes, failing immersion heater elements, or more seriously some damaged or sub-standard cable.
  • Poor or missing connections for the CPC (earth wire) at sockets or lights.
  • An incomplete ring final circuit for 13A sockets (basically an open circuit somewhere so one or more of the L/N/E is not forming a closed loop as it should for a RFC)
  • The "borrowed neutral" where a circuit is not returning power via the cable it came from. Most commonly seen in upstairs/downstairs lights on separate breakers.
The usual recommendation is to have an EICR (electrical installation condition report) done first to check the above issues so you know there are no surprises beyond what you get quoted for.

If you want some background on what an EICR is looking for and a range of problems from minor to severe, the Best Practice guide #4 has guidance on this:

The general guidance on replacing a CU is covered in the BPG #1 booklet.
 
The guy the came out on such short notice was retired so he gave us an electricians number. Haven't got the quote yet. Another guy a year ago said it would be £1000 or so but don't know if that's an arm and a leg. We're in Northern Ireland btw
Do you know what the £1000 was for? Im in Northern Ireland also and it sounds expensive, but it could include more work/upgrades than only upgrading the consumer unit. RCD protection is a worthwhile upgrade and a must, especially when situations like this can arise. If you put a couple of pics of the fuse board etc on here we might be able to advise.
 
Do you know what the £1000 was for? Im in Northern Ireland also and it sounds expensive, but it could include more work/upgrades than only upgrading the consumer unit. RCD protection is a worthwhile upgrade and a must, especially when situations like this can arise. If you put a couple of pics of the fuse board etc on here we might be able to advise.
This is what we're working with. Don't know what he was referring to I'm case of the £1000. Was checking out RCDs today and also came across RCBOs. Is there any need for those or are RCDs ample?
 

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This is what we're working with. Don't know what he was referring to I'm case of the £1000. Was checking out RDCs today and also came across RCBOs. Is there any need for those or are RCDs ample?
RCD protection is like a blanket protection, only issue is with a fsult on one circuit you will loose any other circuits protected by that RCD. RCBO is individual RCD and overload protection for each circuit. This is usually more expensive, but in my opinion is the best option and way to future proof your installation. Your main board doesn't appear to have RCD protection which would be a concern. Although the shower currently does, it may be wise to integrate it into your new consumer unit also if you do decide to go ahead with it.
 
I sincerely hope that 30A fuse carrier (2nd from left) is not lights and still 30A!
It was a 30A fuse that blew earlier actually. The board may have been mislabelled as we discovered today also. If an RCD pops or trips or whatever the terminology may be, do you just replace a fuse/the fuses it is responsible for or how does it go?
 
It was a 30A fuse that blew earlier actually. The board may have been mislabelled as we discovered today also. If an RCD pops or trips or whatever the terminology may be, do you just replace a fuse/the fuses it is responsible for or how does it go?
If something trips you just reset it using the little leaver. No faffing around with wire or replacement fuses!
 
Looking at your setup there are only 7 circuits (6 in the CU, plus the extra shower) and these days RCBO are only around £20-30 more than MCBs plus you save not having two RCDs as well, so I suspect going all-RCBO is only around the hundred quid difference in parts.
 
If something trips you just reset it using the little leaver. No faffing around with wire or replacement fuses!
So when poster above mentioned you'd lose any other circuits connected to that RCB, that just means your electricity would go off throughout the house and the person would be protected. You risk damaging some appliances but you just remove the short circuit and flip the switch back?
 
So when poster above mentioned you'd lose any other circuits connected to that RCB, that just means your electricity would go off throughout the house and the person would be protected.
The older arrangement has one RCD feeding typically 3-6 MCBs (depending on the board size), so the MCBs provide over-current protection, while the RCD provides additional shock protection. However, if any of those circuits has a fault to earth the RCD will switch off all of them.

So you are protected but it might mean lights going off on a faulty kettle, etc., which is not ideal and possibly a bit unsafe. Also you have a harder time if a fault develops in terms of finding out just what is causing it.

With RCBO each module has both the RCD aspect for shock/leakage protection and the MCB aspect for over-current protection.
You risk damaging some appliances but you just remove the short circuit and flip the switch back?
Stuff going off does not usually damage things, though clearly it can be bad news for someone using a PC or similar at the time.

In most cases you won't know what caused the fault, unless it happened the moment you plugged something in or switched something on. Unlike fuses when you should never insert them live, you can close a MCB or similar on to a fault. You will get a bit of a surprise, but they are designed to be safe at the sort of fault levels you see in domestic power supplies.

Bigger faults on stuff fed from 13A sockets usually takes out the fuse in the plug, but often it also trips the MCB as well (whereas usually a 30A fuse will be totally selective with faults on 13A or lower fuses), but resetting is not too difficult.
 
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