Electric sockets tripping

[Lweisrick]

My electric sockets keep tripping, this happens every hour or so after flicking the trip switch. This happens even when nothing is plugged in at all and the sockets are even switched off, I've done nothing to disturb the wires and taken all the sockets off to check for damp and loose connections and all fine, just don't know what the problem is

 

[Dannyboybl00]

Is it the breaker tripping, or the RCD? Or even the RCBO if you have them?

 

[Lweisrick]

Tbh I'm not sure I'm a DIY guy, it says rcd on the fuse box box and it just trips the plug sockets

 

[buzzlightyear]

Best call out your local spark.

 

[Lweisrick]

Best call out your local spark.

Already have pal, and he plugged this socket into each plug and said all was fine on the sockets, is there another way to check before ripping up all the floor boards

 

[James]

That is poor service.
If you had asked him to find the fault, then he should have found the fault.

Can you post a pic of your consumer unit?

 

[telectrix]

Already have pal, and he plugged this socket into each plug and said all was fine on the sockets, is there another way to check before ripping up all the floor boards

you need an electrician with a brain. not the one that said all is OK, when it obviously is not.

sounds like he just plugged in a socket and see. he might make a good employee for british Gas.

 

[Lweisrick]

Best I can do, did I say it takes about an hour or so after I swith it back on for it to trip again, even when all appliances are not plugged in

 

[westward10]

If one of those mcbs are tripping you have a problem. It is obviously intermittent but whatever the problem, it is generating enough fault current to make it trip. Do you have central heating on that circuit.

 

[James]

Can’t read the labels, it’s a long shot but, do you have an immersion heater?
If so, turn it off at the switch next to the hot water tank.

But this really needs fault finding by a real electrician with experience in faults.

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

Even if it’s intermittent then it’s going to have a IR that’s pretty low on one of those circuits. If it trips every hour, I recon a decent spark could find it within a hour through methodical testing.
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Got any outside lights off the socket circuit?

 

[Grant1987]

Even if it’s intermittent then it’s going to have a IR that’s pretty low on one of those circuits. If it trips every hour, I recon a decent spark could find it within a hour through methodical testing.
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Got any outside lights off the socket circuit?

Yes he definitely needs a competent spark to fault find, like the guys have said turn off immersion heater. The element is high probability of faults if you have one. Water in outside lights. Also extension leads they are one of the main culprits for intermittent faults

 

[Lucien Nunes]

To clarify, although there is a label mentioning RCD testing proecdure on the board, there are no RCDs. The breaker that is tripping is an MCB, equivalent to a fuse. For it to trip there must be either an overload (e.g. too many appliances) or a short-circuit (e.g. wires touching together). If everything is unplugged and there is no undiscovered 'herbal laboratory' in your loft that the circuit is powering, then there is most likely a damaged cable that is intermittently shorting. Unlike an RCD trip caused by modest leakage to earth, the heavy current required to trip an MCB makes the fault a potential fire risk due to arcing and overheating. You should not keep resetting the MCB; the fault must be found and rectified even if the MCB stops tripping as it will otherwise remain a risk.

Anyone who looks for the cause of an MCB trip using a socket tester isn't an electrician.

 

[pc1966]

If it is a properly working 32A MCB for your sockets tripping in an hour or so that manes either a constant 40A or thereabouts is going astray, or occasionally something is shorting out

Both are serious issues that should be found and fixed by someone competent (not who you got earlier!).

When you close the breaker, does the electricity meter start showing a lot more power being consumed (dial rotating quickly, or LED flashing more rapidly) within a minute or two?

 

[Vortigern]

When did this start to happen?
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Given the nature of the brand of that box I would not be surprised to find the MCB itself is faulty. So I suppose the cooker is on that same circuit? if so did you switch it off as well. Any sneaky sockets you forgot about in the garage?