im in shock (excuse the pun)

[Marie-Claire]

a friend of mine asked me to have a look at her supply as it keeps tripping, after looking in the consumer unit i was surprised to discover that she has upstairs and downstairs ring on a 32A breaker, she has a big house and i counted 16 double sockets up and 2 spurs, 24 double sockets down with a spur thats powering a water feature and set of downlighters, am i right in thinking that this is too much for a 32a mcb and thats what is possibly causing the problem?

 

[telectrix]

all depends on what load she's got plugged in at any 1 time. try a clamp meter on 1 leg of the ring ( in the CU ). and get her to go round switching things on. might just be that the MCB is elderly and tired ( bit like me LOL), but it does seem a lot of socket outlets for 1 rfc.

edit. i am assuming it's the MCB tripping, not an RCD. if there's no RCD fitted, it could be a fault L/N or L/E causing MCB trip.

 

[Spudnik]

What he said ^^^^^^^

 

[SW1970]

If it's the MCB that's tripping, with that amount of outlets and the likely appliances plugged in then it's an overload problem. If it's an RCD then it could be other things. I'd get a current clamp on the live cable at the CU and see what's happening under typical load.

 

[Phil]

all depends what`s plugged in and on at the same time. ideally it should be on two rings. what down lights are on the ring? I have 20 sockets upstairs and 18 downstairs and mine never trip. is it overload thats tripping it or something plugged in short circuit?

 

[Marie-Claire]

all depends on what load she's got plugged in at any 1 time. try a clamp meter on 1 leg of the ring ( in the CU ). and get her to go round switching things on. might just be that the MCB is elderly and tired ( bit like me LOL), but it does seem a lot of socket outlets for 1 rfc.

she has a lot running on the sockets, washing machine being used all day, dryer, kettle, tv's, stereo, pc, water feature, garden lights, ghd's etc, i have never seen a consumer unit before with only 2 mcbs, one 6amp and one 32amp, its not an old one either

 

[Phil]

she has a lot running on the sockets, washing machine being used all day, dryer, kettle, tv's, stereo, pc, water feature, garden lights, ghd's etc, i have never seen a consumer unit before with only 2 mcbs, one 6amp and one 32amp, its not an old one either

a 2 way board for the whole house? who installed that? normally used in garages and the like

 

[Phil]

 

[Phil]

Like that one ^^^^

 

[Marie-Claire]

all depends what`s plugged in and on at the same time. ideally it should be on two rings. what down lights are on the ring? I have 20 sockets upstairs and 18 downstairs and mine never trip. is it overload thats tripping it or something plugged in short circuit?

sometimes she puts the tv on and it trips, sometimes she puts the iron on and it trips, i think it must be overload because its happening on different sockets when she is using different things and she has got a lot of stuff running, im going to seperate the upstairs and downstairs sockets onto their own breaker and do a few tests

also it never happens on the night when she has turned most stuff off

 

[telectrix]

are you sure it's not a sub main and there's another CU hidden away somewhere?

 

[Marie-Claire]

a 2 way board for the whole house? who installed that? normally used in garages and the like

thats the whole shock though, its not a 2 way board, it has 2 breakers and about eight blanks :0

 

[Phil]

are you sure it's not a sub main and there's another CU hidden away somewhere?

I was thinking maybe new curcuits with and old

 

[telectrix]

way forward , if it turns out to be an overload, is to split the rfc and convert it to 2 separate rfc's

 

[millwall ken]

a friend of mine asked me to have a look at her supply as it keeps tripping, after looking in the consumer unit i was surprised to discover that she has upstairs and downstairs ring on a 32A breaker, she has a big house and i counted 16 double sockets up and 2 spurs, 24 double sockets down with a spur thats powering a water feature and set of downlighters, am i right in thinking that this is too much for a 32a mcb and thats what is possibly causing the problem?

You seem knowledgeable on fault finding - but you really do need to invest in a MFT.