Power keeps tripping out, how to diagnose?

Is it the circuit breaker or the RCD that is tripping? You haven't been very clear, and it makes a big difference in terms of diagnosing the fault.
+1. What exactly is tripping?

Edit: If its a single socket ring, then that should be relatively simple to debug.
 
This happened to me a few month ago.. No matter what I couldn't find the source.

An electrician soon found the problem which happened to be a faulty socket in the hallway. No idea why it suddenly went. I think it cost me about £80.. For me it was money well spent.
 
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If what had tripped was already dedicated to a particular circuit (so isolated a set of appliances) he would have said that

How could something trip and not be dedicated to a particular circuit and isolate a set of appliances? Do you think he has every individual socket on it's own circuit?
 
That's overcurrent, not earth leakage. Unless you're hearing a loud bang when it trips, I would diagnose that as a faulty circuit breaker.

So can I just replace the MCB is or is it an electrician call out you think?

the system resets itself ? or, rather, you know exactly when the incidents occurred ... and who was in the house

The latter yes, but everything that is plugged in switched on all the time, so I'm not sure that helps narrow it down?
 
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So can I just replace the MCB is or is it an electrician call out you think?

The MCB will cost approx. £10, what they add for labour is another story - do you know any Sparks?

For info, you don't get nuisance trips with MCBs like you do with RCDs unless you have loaded it up to the max. What do you have plugged in to that circuit - is it heaters or something?
 
The MCB will cost approx. £10, what they add for labour is another story - do you know any Sparks?

For info, you don't get nuisance trips with MCBs like you do with RCDs unless you have loaded it up to the max. What do you have plugged in to that circuit - is it heaters or something?

We don't have any electric heaters, highest rated devices are the kitchen appliances. It went out at 4am this morning when nothing was really on.
 
ething that is plugged in switched on all the time, so I'm not sure that helps narrow it down?

What is everything? Can you list items, if your draw exceeds the amperage on the MCB then it will trip, things with timers kicking in are renowned for sending MCB's over the tolerance limits. If it's a kitchen it could be when the fridge / freezer motor kicks in that's tripping it. Our Samsung has a cycle that draws a lot of power when running the warm up part then evens out, before the house was re wired it would trip the MCB once a week!
 
I will list the items tomorrow.

But rest assured, it is well below 32A! Apart from a fridge/freezer we have only had a few consumer electronics items and lamps connected to the circuit for months!
 
I will list the items tomorrow.

But rest assured, it is well below 32A! Apart from a fridge/freezer we have only had a few consumer electronics items and lamps connected to the circuit for months!

I highly doubt that you're exceeding the 32A. My money is on the circuit breaker being faulty; it's a cheap make that's been installed.
 
OK so you don't have any rcd's (maybe it's something you should consider ?) and problems not in the kitchen or the cooker.

since it's happened multiple times .. I'm surprised you haven't got a socket device where its (max) 13a fuse hasn't blown or you have the smell of burning.
so as string says maybe the cb is failing.



(in the past failing heating devices - kettles + coffee machines have tripped my rcd's but not tripped the cb's .... showing the merit of rcd's I think)
 
Housemates had an electrician come around today and he said that an MCB failing was very rare and he would not expect it to just reset if that was the case.

So we are currently listing an itenary of electrical items together while plugging the fridge freezer into the kitchen circuit and praying it's that. I would have thought that it would have made economic sense to replace the MCB though anyway surely?

OK so you don't have any rcd's (maybe it's something you should consider ?) and problems not in the kitchen or the cooker.

since it's happened multiple times .. I'm surprised you haven't got a socket device where its (max) 13a fuse hasn't blown or you have the smell of burning.
so as string says maybe the cb is failing.



(in the past failing heating devices - kettles + coffee machines have tripped my rcd's but not tripped the cb's .... showing the merit of rcd's I think)

I assumed that these boxes would have an RCB built in or something? I know we have a towel heater in the bathroom on a seperate circuit with an rcd.
 
I'm not a qualified electrician ! - but in the picture you posted I couldn't see any reference to rcd's or is it before the consumer unit.

( I googled earlier but can't see whether officially/legally you change an MCB yourself, if you follow the appropriate checklist )
 
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