Cafe Doom

HELP! => General help => Topic started by: delboy on November 24, 2008, 04:36:23 PM

Title: Any Electricians Here??
Post by: delboy on November 24, 2008, 04:36:23 PM
All the sockets went dead this evening. I was down the shop at the time and when I came back they were all off. I asked the various members of the household if anyone had switched anything on just before everything went off and they all said no, never touched a thing...

None of the breakers appeared to have tripped so it was all a little odd. I flicked various breakers up and down a few times just to check they really hadn't tripped, which led me to the conclusion it was the main breaker. To cut a long story it was the main fuse, and it was the kettle that was tripping it - used the normal method of turning everything back on one at a time until the main fuse tripped again. "Ah yes," someone said. "I had just switched the kettle on..."

So that was all sorted.

But... during the process of flicking the breakers up and down I inadvertantly flicked off the breaker to the garage. Now this one, which was working fine, won't flip back on. There was no issue with the garage, but just to be safe I've turned everything off out there, yet it still won't reset. I had this once before, and after about 12 hours it suddenly allowed itself to go back on. I'm hoping the same thing will happen again. But why is this? I have a freezer out there, and because it's so cold this evening everything should be okay, but it's still a tad confusing and a bit disconcerting.

Del
Title: Re: Any Electricians Here??
Post by: Ed on November 24, 2008, 06:08:07 PM
I'm not a sparks, so I'm only going on what I've picked up from them over the years, but it sounds like you've got an overly sensitive breaker on the garage circuit. Sometimes you'll get one like that for no particular reason. They are odd things, though - I had a problem while adding a new one to my fuse board because I took a neutral from a different part of the board to the live. That one wouldn't reset either.

May be worth you getting a sparks to do a bit of testing for you. Might be that you've got an earth leak or something, too.
Title: Re: Any Electricians Here??
Post by: Ed on July 15, 2010, 04:25:53 PM
Did you ever resolve this, Del? I saw this a minute ago and wondered if the board happened to be an MK one, because with those you have to press the trip down before it'll reset. Just wondering if that was it :scratch:
Title: Re: Any Electricians Here??
Post by: delboy on July 15, 2010, 04:48:59 PM
It is one of the boards where you have to press the breaker down to reset it, but in this case it turned out to be a faulty breaker. I had an electrician put a new one in, but it did look very easy - or at least I thought so at the time. Not sure I'd remember what to do now.

Regards,

Derek
Title: Re: Any Electricians Here??
Post by: Ed on July 15, 2010, 05:20:33 PM
Ah right, thanks for satisfying my curiosity, Del. Yep - they are ridiculously easy to change. They clip onto a rail at the back called a 'buzz bar', then there's just a wire connection in the top that you do up with a screwdriver. That's all there is to it. But an electrician would then test the circuit's resistance and all that malarkey. Only a half hour job at the most, though. The sort of thing you could get done for twenty quid at mate's rates.
Title: Re: Any Electricians Here??
Post by: QBall on July 15, 2010, 11:29:45 PM
Without a tester, there is no way to try out what is wrong. The only suggestion I can offer is to exchange the suspect breaker with a good one of the same current value and try that. Switch off before you remove the breakers.
Personally I think a licensed electrician should do it for you.
Do you live within fifty miles of Victoria, BC Canada? I'd come over if you did.
Yes I was an electrician.