Totally stumped. Night Storage Heater tripping out MCB, but ok on daytime circuit.

[Steve Poulton]

Please help. I have a basic understanding of electirics, but 5 Electricians are stumped and I don't know where to go next. My mother in law heats her house by 4 Night Storage Heaters, all of which are wired to a Economy 7 supply/fuse board, with no RCD just MCB. The largest of the Night Storage Heaters began to fail and trip the MCD. To cut a long story short, she ended up having a new one fitted. Unfortunately this new one also now trips the MCB. The electricians have tried swapping the various supplies to the various heaters around in the E7 fuse board and the same heater is tripping the different MCB. It would be an obvious thing to consider that there is a fault on the circuit between the board and the night storage heater. However, they have now wired it into the day time board and it is not tripping. Has anyone got any ideas as we need to get it wired back into the E7 circuit??

 

[buzzlightyear]

but 5 Electricians are stumped and I don't know where to go next

were they from the same firm or like Rodney only fools & sparks independent traders !

 

[Pete999]

Nobody from Cardiff has ever ventured on their own to Swansea and vice versa,its just too risky

SC would be OK I'm sure

 

[Pete999]

were they from the same firm or like Rodney from independent traders !

All on the same course may be?

 

[elsparko]

"daytime" is just the booster/convector

has anything changed before this "fault" occured?

 

[Steve Poulton]

E7 MCB appears to be tripping a few hours into night storage heater charge. it is not overheating as it does not trip RCD on main board when wired to that.

 

[elsparko]

have you been charged 5x?

by now it probably would have been cheaper to just replace! lol

 

[Steve Poulton]

Replace what? That's what I am asking? To be fair, she has only been charged once by the same firm, just 5 different guys been back from the same company, in their pursuit of the fix. They have been really thoughtful to the mother in law, just stumped. I don't know too much about electrics, but tradesmen shouldn't immediately conclude other tradesmen haven't got a clue. If you can be helpful, please have read of the issue and suggest a fix.

 

[elsparko]

Replace what? That's what I am asking? To be fair, she has only been charged once by the same firm, just 5 different guys been back from the same company, in their pursuit of the fix. They have been really thoughtful to the mother in law, just stumped. I don't know too much about electrics, but tradesmen shouldn't immediately conclude other tradesmen haven't got a clue. If you can be helpful, please have read of the issue and suggest a fix.

fault finding is a relatively straight forward process, so for 5 "sparkies" to still be scratching their heads after multiple visits suggests they lack experience/knowledge

is it a national company by any chance?

 

[Octopus]

What paperwork have these "electricians" given your mum? If they have what do they claim to have done. This isn't rocket science.......... however as you are saying it trips a few hours into the night, the simple answer could be a knackered MCB...

 

[elsparko]

What paperwork have these "electricians" given your mum? If they have what do they claim to have done. This isn't rocket science.......... however as you are saying it trips a few hours into the night, the simple answer could be a knackered MCB...

could be a 6amp mcb for all we know lol

 

[telectrix]

Nobody from Cardiff has ever ventured on their own to Swansea and vice versa,its just too risky

i know . came across this little beast down in Brecon Beacons.

 

[elsparko]

even when doing fault finding we always submit results with our findings, sometimes even a video depending on the fault

if the circuits are fine then its the heater or the mcb

one of my last storage heater jobs was a burnt out switch which had melted several of the cables inside, have they even had the cover off?

 

[Steve Poulton]

Pretty sure its a 15amp MCB. The point is the particular heater trips any of the 15 MCB's on the E7 board they put it into (the other night storage heaters don't), but the heater does not trip any of the 15 amp MCB's on the main fuseboard when they wire it to that.

 

[Octopus]

You need to find a decent spark........

 

[Steve Poulton]

Its a new storage heater as the other one was old and it was thought that the problem was with the old heater. They haven't charged for the new heater as they want to fix the problem before they do. They are willing to return the old heater to avoid unnecessary expense as long as we can sort the problem. So in other words both heaters are tripping the E7 15amp MCB but not the normal board when connected to that.....