Any ideas why my electricity trips out???

[tatty12]

Hi guys,the last 3 nights my electricity has tripped out at roughly the same time everynight about 12.30.
Now nothing new is switched on and in fact it comes at a time when we are using the least amount of electricity.
Any ideas what could be causing this to happen?
Thanks

 

[SirKit Breaker]

Do you mean all your electricity goes off and you have to reset something, or it goes off, and comes back on without you doing anything, if its the latter then it is a supply problem, there maybe work going on, on the network and late night causes minimum disruption, if you have to reset something you have a problem and need to get someone in to have a look.

Cheers.........Howard

 

[nickblake]

I take it its the RCD thats tripping Switch on the left with a button on it saying press to test , if so it could be a multitude of things but more than likly its the RCD starting to fail , other things it could be is an intermittent short ,water in an outside light ,rodent attack of cabling , what i would reccomend is to get an Part P regestered electrician with the correct test equipment and experiance to fault find to call round and test the installation , Replacemet of the RCD main switch should should only be carried out by a suitable competant qualified person

 

[tatty12]

Hi sorry did'nt make myself clear,the whole electricity goes off,and i have to click the grey switch to turn it all back on,sorry i know nothing about electrics as you probally guessed.Just seems so wierd it just started happening and at the same time everynight??

 

[telectrix]

is your immersion heater on a timer? or anything that comes on around that time. ? sounds like an intermittent fault and you need the right test equipment to find it. nickblake's post sums it up excellently.

 

[tatty12]

No,nothing at all comes on at that time,i live in a council house ,so will probally get them to come out.Trouble is i now have to sit up and wait for it to happen just so i can re-set it again.
Thanks for the advice.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Economy 7? (night rate) heaters or immersion heater?

 

[tatty12]

Economy 7? (night rate) heaters or immersion heater?

Nope,none of these.
Well i dont think i am on economy 7 and it has only started in last 3 days???

 

[Paul.M]

Well its now 12:42am and nothing from the op although still logged on? Have you got anything in the house with a timer on it? Do you have a day and night meter? Anything that is electrical with a timer is where I would look first.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Well if there is a fault somewhere on a circuit it does sound like something on a timer. On your water cylinder do you have two elements? Top and bottom? The bottom one will be your e7. If there is a leak or cable damage this could cause the tripping. It's tripping at this time because that's when power is flowing through the circuit.
Here's my suggestion, if your water cylinder is set up like I say you should have a switch on the wall. Switch this off (may mean you using your boost during the day) if it still trips its something else (storage heaters maybe?) and if not just need a spark to come in and narrow it down exactly. Looking at the time now I take it it's just happened?

 

[nickblake]

Bet you any money its an RCD fault

 

[Paul.M]

She's probably re-booting her computer as we speak.

 

[tatty12]

Update from last night,while looking into some of things you guys siad i pressed the grey re-set button,now this tripped the electricity,and i then flicked the grey switch to turn it all back on,and it did'nt then go off again all night so really confused now.

 

[telectrix]

it does sound like it may be a faulty RCD as nick says. only way to tell is by performing a ramp test ( this requires an electrician with the appropriate test gear ). so time to call the council, i think.

 

[Dunc]

If you've got a frost free fridge freezer it could be that. They have a small heating element in that defrosts the fridge every night. If the heater is faulty that could account for the tripping problem.