RCD Tripping, Nothing in Sockets, no load... what now?

[Tidy]

Hi Everybody,

We just moved into a detached house in last friday, only to find that the RCD keeps tripping for no reason :S I have had an electrician out who checked the RCD and said the box is fine.. and must be the sockets.

We unplugged every item in the house and tried to turn the socket switch back on (on the CU)... it trips the RCD, after 4 or 5 attempts it holds and we have power. (lights etc are not affected).

If we press the test button the RCD main switch does as it should.... and if we turn the socket switch OFF the main RCD will switch on immediately and hold. If we start to plug items back into the sockets sometimes it trips... sometimes it does not... there is no pattern.

I have pulled all the sockets away from the wall to make sure there are no trapped wires and for any interference with the back plates.. all ok, and still trips for no real reason.

The electrician (as above) has tested the CU with some little plugin things and said its fine and working as it should.

The worst time is the morning (between 8 - 10am), there are no washing machines on, no dryers, the combi boiler is off.. so essentially no load at all.

Other notes of interest is the previous owner who i have contacted (because of mail he needs to pick up) asked about the electrics... his words were

"its the shower, if i wanted to use the shower i had to make sure the washing machine, dryer and microwave was off). I had all the sockets tested and my electrican could not find anything wrong with the wiring.

Surely that would affect the shower switch... and not the sockets switch (the shower is not on the sockets - tested that lol).


I am sorry to pick everybodies brains, but i will go through when it has tripped and see if somebody is blatantly obvious?

1) Plug in extension cable with nothing in... Sockets RCD flicked as well as main RCD
2) Plug in hoover into kitchen socket.... main RCD off
3) Walking across the landing towards the shower... main RCD switch off
4) Jumping on the landing floorboards...no change (in case of rogue nail in floor boards lol)
5) Turning TV sockets on (which has an xbox, DVD player, 50" plasma, Wii), sockets rcd off, main switch off
6) 2 minutes into a shower, sockets off, shower off, main rcd off

This morning when i was just about to have a shower and had to reset the main switch, when i managed to finally get all switched to stick there was a buzzing noise coming from the CU - but it only happened when the shower was turned on (electric shower).

I am at a real loss at what to try next, with everything seeming to be checking out i seem to working (web designer) out of fear that my PC will shut down at any time with no warnings etc...

I am no expert but after many nights browsing the web and trying to diagnose the issue, would it be possible to think that it might be an earth problem for the house?

Thank you all again

 

[telectrix]

should have an auction. i'll start. i'll find that fault in 3 hours.

 

[Octopus]

Where are you based?? I'd give you a few minutes!!

 

[telectrix]

think he's south of the severn-- indian country.

 

[PB1]

Thank you, I hope we can get to the bottom of it.

One thing that still worries me, is the buzzing we get from the CU when the shower is on? At our old house this never happened... the only noise from the shower was generally me singing...

You can get buzzing from the CU when terminals are not tightened properly. Ask the electrician to check the tightness of all the terminals into MCBs and into the RCDs.

 

[Edd]

Where are you based?? I'd give you a few minutes!!

hang on your gota get out the van,,, and dont forget the hand break,, dont wana see you roll out the van why it continues off down the road, just to find the fault!! and your gona need to grab your tools and test gear from this van as it rolls off...

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Hi Everybody,

We just moved into a detached house in last friday, only to find that the RCD keeps tripping for no reason :S I have had an electrician out who checked the RCD and said the box is fine.. and must be the sockets.

We unplugged every item in the house and tried to turn the socket switch back on (on the CU)... it trips the RCD, after 4 or 5 attempts it holds and we have power. (lights etc are not affected).

If we press the test button the RCD main switch does as it should.... and if we turn the socket switch OFF the main RCD will switch on immediately and hold. If we start to plug items back into the sockets sometimes it trips... sometimes it does not... there is no pattern.

I have pulled all the sockets away from the wall to make sure there are no trapped wires and for any interference with the back plates.. all ok, and still trips for no real reason.

The electrician (as above) has tested the CU with some little plugin things and said its fine and working as it should.

The worst time is the morning (between 8 - 10am), there are no washing machines on, no dryers, the combi boiler is off.. so essentially no load at all.

Other notes of interest is the previous owner who i have contacted (because of mail he needs to pick up) asked about the electrics... his words were



Surely that would affect the shower switch... and not the sockets switch (the shower is not on the sockets - tested that lol).


I am sorry to pick everybodies brains, but i will go through when it has tripped and see if somebody is blatantly obvious?

1) Plug in extension cable with nothing in... Sockets RCD flicked as well as main RCD
2) Plug in hoover into kitchen socket.... main RCD off
3) Walking across the landing towards the shower... main RCD switch off
4) Jumping on the landing floorboards...no change (in case of rogue nail in floor boards lol)
5) Turning TV sockets on (which has an xbox, DVD player, 50" plasma, Wii), sockets rcd off, main switch off
6) 2 minutes into a shower, sockets off, shower off, main rcd off

This morning when i was just about to have a shower and had to reset the main switch, when i managed to finally get all switched to stick there was a buzzing noise coming from the CU - but it only happened when the shower was turned on (electric shower).

I am at a real loss at what to try next, with everything seeming to be checking out i seem to working (web designer) out of fear that my PC will shut down at any time with no warnings etc...

I am no expert but after many nights browsing the web and trying to diagnose the issue, would it be possible to think that it might be an earth problem for the house?

Thank you all again

eh?...i hope he doesn`t mean a "plug in tester"...available at most DIY stores..lol.......what happened to an IR for a start.......

 

[Octopus]

Absolutely, I think my main concern is an open cheque book situation... which i feel this is heading... But hey, its needs to be safe!

How old is the house/wiring??????????

 

[Tidy]

Hi Everybody,

Right the "plug in tester" was in a silver briefcase that tested to see if the RCB tripped out in the correct amount of time (i think) - it looked like a large multimeter... it seemed to send some sort of current to the RCD to force it to trip... all tests came back ok

The house was built in the 1970's i think. When the houses were first build it had the standard fuse boxes (with the wire) and at some stage has been changed to a new CU with RCD protection. (the only was i know this is my parents live on the same estate and they still have the old style fuse box - and the whole estate was built over only a few years).

Electrician has called today and he's coming to spend a day here on monday to try and locate the problem...


But another spanner to works is this.... its behaved all day today - woop! So no tripping etc.... The ONLY thing i have changed was to turn the shower heat setting to a lower level (3 power levels - it was on the top level)... but the shower has not been used.. so dont know if its relevant or not?

The Hoover has been on this morning... all ok... my pc's are on - all ok..

 

[telectrix]

sounds like thew shower. some have 2 elements. maybe 1 of them is duff. it's certainly where i'd first be looking.

 

[Tidy]

Would that in some way affect the sockets tripping? Or a separate fault?

 

[telectrix]

impossible to say without thorough test. these faults are sometimes straightforward- 1 particular circuit tripping it's own RCD< but occasionally there can be weird results that don't seem to have a logical explanation. especially if the fault is N-E.

 

[Tidy]

N- E is that neutral to earth? lol

 

[telectrix]

correct.

 

[Tidy]

Cool, thankyou!

Ok going to move my office round now, lol - nail biting moment will see if anything trips whilst im plugging/unplugging stuff

 

[Tidy]

Ok,

Unplugged everything... fine... plugged stuff back in, main RCD flicked off. Turned back on no problem.... then plugged in a usb charger.... flicked off again...


Not sure if its relevant, or just the design of the extension cable... but i have a surge protector cable... which has a green light to show surge protection is "on".

The green light is flickering on the extension?