Another Intermittent Fault

[PEG]

By Marconi My motivation - an abiding interest in electrical engineering. I spent time in the 1970s working as an electrician. I then joined the Royal Navy. I gained a first class honours degree in engineering specialisng in electronic, electrical, control and real time computing. I served at sea in two frigates, first as the deputy of one of te two engineering departments and later as head. In each case I had 30-40 odd highly trained and qualified technicians working for me. Alone at sea we only had ourselves and our wits to keep complex equipment operational so we had to good at diagnosis of faults, work together as a team and draw on each others knowledge and experience. I am a chartered engineer and chartered electrical engineer.

I will not bore by detailing my other experience save for my interest in electronics - recent projects being the electronics to control 4 sets of traffic lights and another an 8 floor lift.

You will note I only venture to post on certain topics - the wiring regulations and practice of wiring I stay clear of because it beyond my competency to comment. Fault finding is not.

I am fortunate to be retired. The flats are my wife's pensions (she is chronically ill and disabled) - so that in the unfortuante event of my ill-timed demise she has enough income to look after herself. So I am a landlord and do some volumtary work and act as a carer for my wife.

This forum provides some interesting mental stimulation. And I think I can help and I suppose provide some education once in a while.

Am I not welcome in the EF or by you in particular?

...haven't we all....Giggerty :yesnod:

Just breaking the tension,with a comedy cartoon reference...

I think,sometimes,on an anonymous forum,the asking of a question such as previous,allows an answer which can inform many.

Fair play to you,for your candid history explanation. I would be struggle to list mine as succinctly,and remain believable...:cool4:

 

[marconi]

Dear Murdoch: If I knew how to, I would remove the last line of my post #15. It was uncalled for and unnecessarily terse.

 

[andyjthompson]

I a number of years back had a similar fault. The occupant reported a loud bang periodically, but was unable to exactly say where abouts! What I eventually was a water leak from the bath that had found its way to a nail in the floor boards that had pierced a 2.5mm T & E. The bang was the short to earth which never took out the re-wirable fuse.

 

[PEG]

In relation to SJDs' original post,i too,had a similar fault,which i have posted the details of on here somewhere....

It was the same situation,intermittent tripping of MCB,once in a week...or every 5 minutes....IR showed clear,but the inspecting of all sockets,revealed a face plate screw,with a blackened,knobbly end...

I put the variable interval of tripping,to temperature changes,in the conservatory i found the BBQed socket in :sailor:

 

[Octopus]

By Marconi My motivation - an abiding interest in electrical engineering. I spent time in the 1970s working as an electrician. I then joined the Royal Navy. I gained a first class honours degree in engineering specialisng in electronic, electrical, control and real time computing. I served at sea in two frigates, first as the deputy of one of te two engineering departments and later as head. In each case I had 30-40 odd highly trained and qualified technicians working for me. Alone at sea we only had ourselves and our wits to keep complex equipment operational so we had to good at diagnosis of faults, work together as a team and draw on each others knowledge and experience. I am a chartered engineer and chartered electrical engineer.

I will not bore by detailing my other experience save for my interest in electronics - recent projects being the electronics to control 4 sets of traffic lights and another an 8 floor lift.

You will note I only venture to post on certain topics - the wiring regulations and practice of wiring I stay clear of because it beyond my competency to comment. Fault finding is not.

I am fortunate to be retired. The flats are my wife's pensions (she is chronically ill and disabled) - so that in the unfortuante event of my ill-timed demise she has enough income to look after herself. So I am a landlord and do some volumtary work and act as a carer for my wife.

This forum provides some interesting mental stimulation. And I think I can help and I suppose provide some education once in a while.

Am I not welcome in the EF or by you in particular?

No, just curious. You wouldn't be the first person to start off by being a "diyer" and later come out as a sparky in training.

and why do you put "By Marconi"?

Its obvious who the poster is?

 

[PEG]

Yeah,i did notice the prefix,and thought it was maybe a tag set by his own computer or similar....its' a quirky thing,and we all need to be different...

I often think it might be classy to refer to myself in the third person,just to be different...

Yes,Peg likes this idea,very much :cool3:

 

[ruston]

No, just curious. You wouldn't be the first person to start off by being a "diyer" and later come out as a sparky in training.

and why do you put "By Marconi"?

Its obvious who the poster is?

Marconi were suppliers of Ships equipment at a guess.
An appropriate user name.

 

[marc8]

Hi All
sounds crazy but last year we had a loud bang from an area where our boiler was contained & it was the boiler, had a fault on the combustion side of things was a loud bang every now & then, from your post I see that a new boiler was fitted a little while ago sure it is set up properly & not an electrical fault. might be worth a check before you rip the thing apart, also another test would be to see on any clips installed for pipework that the screw that holds the clip is not live or anyway has low IR to Earth or a circuit.

 

[SJD]

Hi All
sounds crazy but last year we had a loud bang from an area where our boiler was contained & it was the boiler, had a fault on the combustion side of things was a loud bang every now & then, from your post I see that a new boiler was fitted a little while ago sure it is set up properly & not an electrical fault. might be worth a check before you rip the thing apart, also another test would be to see on any clips installed for pipework that the screw that holds the clip is not live or anyway has low IR to Earth or a circuit.

I have speculated that the fault could be something boiler related, especially as until the last time, nothing tripped. It is also not impossible that the one trip was either a coincidence, or wishful thinking by the tenants (who won't get the eventual bill). I've yet to get back over to the property, so no update as yet.

 

[Blowcat]

I Had something similar a while ago, a popping noise every so often. A 20mm tube went under the kitchen floor and the cable was sitting in water breaking down.

 

[hairy g string]

had a faulty washing machine that would blow the 32a type b mcb but leave both 13a inline 1362 fuses intact.you have to wonder the use of a 13amp fuse when really it will only operate on a short circuit.

 

[davesparks]

had a faulty washing machine that would blow the 32a type b mcb but leave both 13a inline 1362 fuses intact.you have to wonder the use of a 13amp fuse when really it will only operate on a short circuit.

What other load was on the circuit at the time?
What load was on the MCBs either side of it?

 

[hairy g string]

hi dave no load atoll flat empty but as soon as you put washing machine to cycle bang at the mcb.in saying that probably a fridge /freezer .kitchen was on own ring.

 

[hairy g string]

hi andy.on a recent job joiner screwed thru a twin and earth 2.5 on a 30 rewireable fuse .blew fuse wire.once board once lifted the inside of the t and e was black for almost a metre inside the cores .couldn't stripp any more to find a clean bit of insulation .never seen that with an mcb in place.