electrical problem!!
- Thread starter nagined
- Start date
insufficient information
do you live in town or country?
overhead or underground supply?
does it happen to all your neighbours?
what is the thing that gets knocked out?
Is it inside your house?
how is it repaired or reset?
show us a photo
do you live in town or country?
overhead or underground supply?
does it happen to all your neighbours?
what is the thing that gets knocked out?
Is it inside your house?
how is it repaired or reset?
show us a photo
Hi JohnD
Thanks for your reply, we live in the country, overhead supply, it does'nt happen to the neighbours, the consumer unit knocks out which is inside and I reset it by flicking the main switch back on the consumer unit,
Hope it helps
see pic in my gallery
Thanks for your reply, we live in the country, overhead supply, it does'nt happen to the neighbours, the consumer unit knocks out which is inside and I reset it by flicking the main switch back on the consumer unit,
Hope it helps
see pic in my gallery
the picture is a bit fuzzy, but if you mean the thing on the far left with a blue "manual" button on it which I take to be a test button, it is a 30mA RCD.
[GALLERY=media, 1256][/GALLERY]
The purpose of these is to trip if they sense an imbalance in current between the Line and the Neutral conductors. Apart from a fault, electrocution or water ingress, they can be tripped by external events (one of mine does that sometimes
You can get a Surge Suppression device, but they are quite expensive, IIRC about £30 each and you need two on each circuit; or several hundred pounds for one that will protect the whole installation
A few things you could look at (although French practice will be different from UK)
30mA is unusually sensitive to protect a whole house, since it is easily tripped by small nuisance currents; and if you have slight leakages on e.g. the outside lamps or sockets which are moist from rain; the pond pump, the washing machine and the immersion heater (earth leakage is most often on "watery" appliances) or the oven electric element, you may be constantly close to the tripping level so you need little more leakage to take you over it. Try unplugging these (not just switching them off) to isolate then from the circuit.
Have a look in some neighbours houses, and see if they have the same arrangement of a single RCD protecting the whole installation. look particularly at the sensitivity rating. You will see yours says "30mA" on it (30 milliamps, which is 0.03 of an Amp). this is very sensitive and gives good protection against electric shock. However we would not consider it suitable to protect the whole house with a single one of these as it is so prone to nuisance tripping, and also puts all the lights out which can introduce another set of dangers. We would protect the Socket circuits to this sensitivity, but if we had a whole-house RCD it would usually be a 100mA (less sensitive) one, normally with a delay circuit so that it did not trip unless the fault persisted for 30 milliseconds or more (this would prevent it tripping from most lightening flashes).
Overhead suppliess are particularly prone to nuisance tripping in lightening and also often have poor-quality earthing.
Check if you have any outdoor circuits that might be picking up the pulse, it is possible to protect then using metal conduit or steel armoured cable, but this is an expensive way of doing it. they may also be causing background leakage due to damp.
Also check the quality of your main earth,. As you have an overhead supply, it may come from EDF, or you may have a metal spike in the ground. Whatever it is, examine it for good connection, cable the thickness of a pencil, and that it goes direct to your Consumer Unit (or possibly to a metal block close to the meter where all or most other earths are connected). Over here we are obliged to bond the incoming water, gas and oil pipes, since they can introduce currents from outside, and we also bond metallic services in the bathroom, including iron soil pipes and metal waste pipes, if any.. This is quite easy to do, and in the UK it is not notifiable work and a householder is allowed to DIY it. I do not know what rules apply over there.
Consult a qualified local electrician who is suitably licenced, if you are in a country district where overhead supplies are common, he will doubtless have come across the problem before and will know the local solution. In the UK is sort of work is controlled by Building Regulations or Warrants, and has to be officially notifed and certified.
[GALLERY=media, 1256][/GALLERY]
The purpose of these is to trip if they sense an imbalance in current between the Line and the Neutral conductors. Apart from a fault, electrocution or water ingress, they can be tripped by external events (one of mine does that sometimes
You can get a Surge Suppression device, but they are quite expensive, IIRC about £30 each and you need two on each circuit; or several hundred pounds for one that will protect the whole installation
A few things you could look at (although French practice will be different from UK)
30mA is unusually sensitive to protect a whole house, since it is easily tripped by small nuisance currents; and if you have slight leakages on e.g. the outside lamps or sockets which are moist from rain; the pond pump, the washing machine and the immersion heater (earth leakage is most often on "watery" appliances) or the oven electric element, you may be constantly close to the tripping level so you need little more leakage to take you over it. Try unplugging these (not just switching them off) to isolate then from the circuit.
Have a look in some neighbours houses, and see if they have the same arrangement of a single RCD protecting the whole installation. look particularly at the sensitivity rating. You will see yours says "30mA" on it (30 milliamps, which is 0.03 of an Amp). this is very sensitive and gives good protection against electric shock. However we would not consider it suitable to protect the whole house with a single one of these as it is so prone to nuisance tripping, and also puts all the lights out which can introduce another set of dangers. We would protect the Socket circuits to this sensitivity, but if we had a whole-house RCD it would usually be a 100mA (less sensitive) one, normally with a delay circuit so that it did not trip unless the fault persisted for 30 milliseconds or more (this would prevent it tripping from most lightening flashes).
Overhead suppliess are particularly prone to nuisance tripping in lightening
and also often have poor-quality earthing.Check if you have any outdoor circuits that might be picking up the pulse, it is possible to protect then using metal conduit or steel armoured cable, but this is an expensive way of doing it. they may also be causing background leakage due to damp.
Also check the quality of your main earth,. As you have an overhead supply, it may come from EDF, or you may have a metal spike in the ground. Whatever it is, examine it for good connection, cable the thickness of a pencil, and that it goes direct to your Consumer Unit (or possibly to a metal block close to the meter where all or most other earths are connected). Over here we are obliged to bond the incoming water, gas and oil pipes, since they can introduce currents from outside, and we also bond metallic services in the bathroom, including iron soil pipes and metal waste pipes, if any.. This is quite easy to do, and in the UK it is not notifiable work and a householder is allowed to DIY it. I do not know what rules apply over there.
Consult a qualified local electrician who is suitably licenced, if you are in a country district where overhead supplies are common, he will doubtless have come across the problem before and will know the local solution. In the UK is sort of work is controlled by Building Regulations or Warrants, and has to be officially notifed and certified.