Water sparking wire

[Steven07]

We've had a tiler in doing the kitchen floor and through no real fault of his own the floor flooded a little (stopcock issue). Was only surface water but its seemingly gotten around some wires.

Anyway, I came down and could instantly hear this electrical noise. Like a fuzz. Like something out of a movie when there's live wires around. Got down on hands and knees and there was the tiniest spark every 5-10 secs followed by smoke which had the kitchen full of a burning smell. Knew immediately from the sound alone that it was v dangerous. Turned the power off. How do we go about this?

 

[Steven07]

I sincerely hope that 30A fuse carrier (2nd from left) is not lights and still 30A!

It was a 30A fuse that blew earlier actually. The board may have been mislabelled as we discovered today also. If an RCD pops or trips or whatever the terminology may be, do you just replace a fuse/the fuses it is responsible for or how does it go?

 

[pc1966]

It was a 30A fuse that blew earlier actually. The board may have been mislabelled as we discovered today also. If an RCD pops or trips or whatever the terminology may be, do you just replace a fuse/the fuses it is responsible for or how does it go?

If something trips you just reset it using the little leaver. No faffing around with wire or replacement fuses!

 

[pc1966]

Looking at your setup there are only 7 circuits (6 in the CU, plus the extra shower) and these days RCBO are only around £20-30 more than MCBs plus you save not having two RCDs as well, so I suspect going all-RCBO is only around the hundred quid difference in parts.

 

[Steven07]

If something trips you just reset it using the little leaver. No faffing around with wire or replacement fuses!

So when poster above mentioned you'd lose any other circuits connected to that RCB, that just means your electricity would go off throughout the house and the person would be protected. You risk damaging some appliances but you just remove the short circuit and flip the switch back?

 

[pc1966]

So when poster above mentioned you'd lose any other circuits connected to that RCB, that just means your electricity would go off throughout the house and the person would be protected.

The older arrangement has one RCD feeding typically 3-6 MCBs (depending on the board size), so the MCBs provide over-current protection, while the RCD provides additional shock protection. However, if any of those circuits has a fault to earth the RCD will switch off all of them.

So you are protected but it might mean lights going off on a faulty kettle, etc., which is not ideal and possibly a bit unsafe. Also you have a harder time if a fault develops in terms of finding out just what is causing it.

With RCBO each module has both the RCD aspect for shock/leakage protection and the MCB aspect for over-current protection.

You risk damaging some appliances but you just remove the short circuit and flip the switch back?

Stuff going off does not usually damage things, though clearly it can be bad news for someone using a PC or similar at the time.

In most cases you won't know what caused the fault, unless it happened the moment you plugged something in or switched something on. Unlike fuses when you should never insert them live, you can close a MCB or similar on to a fault. You will get a bit of a surprise, but they are designed to be safe at the sort of fault levels you see in domestic power supplies.

Bigger faults on stuff fed from 13A sockets usually takes out the fuse in the plug, but often it also trips the MCB as well (whereas usually a 30A fuse will be totally selective with faults on 13A or lower fuses), but resetting is not too difficult.

 

[Steven07]

Can't thank you guys enough. I think this is the most helpful forum I've ever been on... feel like I've learned a decent bit from today alone! Always wanted to learn enough about electricity to atleast be competent so thank you all for your replies!

To anyone wondering, todays issue was fixed just with some tape and the guy mentioned that it was really the only appropriate solution as replacing the cable (think it passed through multiple sockets in the kitchen) would take more hassle than it was worth. Oh aswell as that the cable was routed along the floor behind the kicker board which he said wouldn't be done nowadays just because it's more likely to come into contact with water that way.He then recommended we upgrade our board and referred us to someone capable (today's saviour was actually retired). Been learning about it ever since.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[123]

@Steven07 what part of Northern Ireland are you in? Would think the £1000 quote was for a lot more than just replacing a consumer unit, although quot you had at the time should detail what works you are being quoted for.

I'd get that taped up temporary repair fixed with something more appropriate, there are numerous products available that make an adequate repair.

Water leaks behind/under kitchen units shouldn't be a regular issue, would end up needing a new kitchen in a matter of no time as the carcasses and kickboard will be ruined.