Supply voltage issue?

[Sneg1]

Hi I am a first year apprentice and at my house we have a TT system and the rcd keeps tripping.

I made sure all appliances were unplugged and it still does it every now and again but if you isolate everything and put my meter on the live and neutral comming into the house it's bouncing around from 170v to 222v then 180v then stays at 230v for a while them bounces around again do you think this is a supply issue as it does it the same if the power in the house is on or off??

 

[malcolmsanford]

Well if your going down to 170 vols you have a problem and the DNO need to sort it out for you.

Are you at the end of a row of houses in the sticks, or is there a huge farm or something local that might be pulling a large load.

Normally the DNO would not come out unless you proved this fluctuation, so you may need to fit a power analyser or monitor to your installation. These can be hire for not a great deal of money and just plug into a socket and away they go

As for you RCD tripping. Is it a new type or an old Voltage operated one? If it is the older type these units were notorious for tripping out due to voltage fluctuations. A modern one should in theory not do that, but there is a lot of things in electricity that should not happen in theory but does

 

[Sneg1]

It's a legrand 16th edition board rcd is 100ma had the tripping for a while and it's slowly got worse sometimes the voltage will stay at 220v and it won't trip then voltage will drop it will start buzzing on a mcb then trip obviously only supplying at 170v the mcb will be overloading

 

[trev]

You've got to get the DNO out mate, what's that cracking noise I can hear and that burning smell is horrible, you never know they might come out quickly

 

[Sneg1]

DNO been out normal spark first said the voltage was ok a 220v and hired it to 234v but it drops from 220

Line man comming to check line as at the top of the house there is a joint in the supply cable so hopefully will be sorted

 

[drew35]

I used to have a workshop at the end of the power lines, voltage used to dip to around 180v. The main problem was every time the kettle went on all the lights went out, and there were no windows! In the winter the fluorescents used to go on and off all day, if you were moving around you had to freeze until the lights came back, mainly because there was a pit in the floor.
DNO kindly said it was a commercial property, I was the end of the line, and I was causing it so they quoted me 60 grand to bring down 3 phase, oh how I laughed. A solicitor got the price down to 6 grand if I dug the trench from the pole, that meant I got to play with the digger! And then I got a 3 phase heater, hmm.