My Dads got a problem with his ring (main)

[down2earth]

First off, hands up I am a five week wonder, currently working with a 'proper' spark and getting lots of valualble experience, anyway, my Dad phoned this morning saying that the downstairs ring main had tripped and would not reset, unfortunately I don't live very nearby so he will have to call in a spark, but I did go through some steps.
Firstly its the MCB thats tripping not the RCD, this presumably means a Live/ Earth fault of more than 32 amps on that circuit.
Next step was to get him to unplug everthing he could think of on that ring, did that and the MCB will still not reset.
Next I checked that he hadn't bought any new appliances or had any work done lately, all negative.

I was wondering what your next steps would be if you were the spark that was called out, presumably you would check PFC and Ze and check the CU to make sure nothing was hanging in the breeze that shouldn't be, next I guess would be a IR test (if everything is unplugged), after that I guess it would be front covers off the socket outlets to check them. Do MCB's often fail, could this be a cause?

Anyway, any replies gratefully received.

Down2earth.

 

[HandySparks]

could have been worse,his dad might of had a problem with his male chicken..:shades_smile:

That would be a job for the plumbers then.

 

[PC Electrics]

For those of you who won't be able to sleep tonight without knowing what the problem was, it turns out the conservatory light was full of water as the wind had been blowing the rain up the roof, I assume the light is on a switched fuse spur off the downstairs ring.

Thankyou all for your replies, and TGIF.

Down2earth.

So, presumably, it was the RCD that was tripping and not the MCB?

Water doesn't have a sufficiently low resistance to allow the kind of fault current that will trip the magnetic side of an MCB.

 

[UKMeterman]

Hi,
Depends how close the wires are, I have seen one kettle lead with a lot of tracking on it between L+N and it blew out of the kettle with a loud bang and took out the 13A plug fuse.
UKmeterman

 

[parkerbloggs]

Is the RCD operating within limits?

 

[down2earth]

Is the RCD operating within limits?

I don't think it can have been the RCD otherwise it would have taken out half or all of the rest of the circuits, it was only the downstairs ring that was tripping.

 

[1shortcircuit]

This thread has made me chuckle.:sunny:

It's always nice to see a thread update letting everyone know what the issue turned out to be. It would be nice if it happened more often