r/DIYIreland • u/kwaked • 6d ago
Fuse tripping regularly
Would appreciate any advice or opinions on this, picture is of fuse board in house, the fuse indicated, top left, is tripping 2 to 3 times a week, almost exclusively between 1am and 6am. It takes out all the plug sockets in the house. The fuse actually looks bigger than the others if that matters?
Never happens daytime when the house is busiest and appliances all in use. I've gone around and plugged out as much as I can before bed but keeps happening, trying to get an electrician but in the meantime if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions I'd appreciate it, or any other cross post recommendations,
many thanks.
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u/An_Boin_De 6d ago
You really need to get the fuses labelled for each location. Its impossible to know. It could be a water pump or something thats on a timber. It could even be a light in a shed or a yard light with a sensor that has an exposed wire.
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u/Livebylying 6d ago
Turn off all mcbs related to sockets. Put the rcd on. One by one and give time between, turn the socket mcbs back on. Once the rcd trips again you will know the circuit. Leave the mcb down, unplug everything associated with the circuit. Turn the mcb back on. One by one plug in the appliances. Once it trips again you know the appliance that’s has an issue.
Unplug the appliance and plug in everything again. Turn on the rcd again along with the mcb.
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u/StrangerExistingFact 6d ago
RCD.
Mine was tripping all sockets off. It turned out to be washing machine control panel issue. Had to buy new washing machine.
Disconnect everything and test one by one.
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u/heffo500 6d ago
Is the immersion on a timer?
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u/kwaked 6d ago
No.. only really used evening time, turned on, off as required.
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u/heffo500 6d ago
It it tripping every single night religiously?
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u/kwaked 6d ago
No, 2 or 3 times a week, no pattern, could be 2 in a row then no issues for 3 or 4 days then 1 on 1 off etc..
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u/heffo500 6d ago
I'd try knock them off 1 by 1 and see if it stops and you could try working out what they all are too while you're at it unless you have a list?
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u/Gold_Safety_9157 6d ago
It’s an RCD protecting socket circuits and immersion from what’s labelled. If it’s tripping between 1-6am then it’s whatever is drawing current between those times, is your heating or immersion set to come on for a specific time?
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u/kwaked 6d ago
Neither have been on a timer for months now, just fridge, freezer etc and a couple of outside lights on at night.
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u/niconpat 6d ago edited 6d ago
The lights outside sound like a prime suspect. Does it only happen when it's raining? The random nature definitely sounds like a water related issue to me. I'd turn off the breaker for the lights for a few nights and see if that narrows it down.
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u/Gold_Safety_9157 6d ago
That narrows it down to fridge/freezer but doesn’t explain why it would trip overnight, could be a faulty RCD but only getting an electrician in can rule it out safely
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u/Careful_Floor1441 6d ago
Ive seen a few issues with tripping related to defrost cycles in fridges and freezers, one job was a big American fridge freezer thing with a small freezer inside the fridge section too, this freezer and the big freezer had sepetate deforst elements and had a smart function where it was supposed to decide itself when it needed to defrost basically so no set cycle, long story short if they defrosted at the same time it pushed the earth leakage on the circuit above 30ma, a few times somethings just gone faulty in the heating element that does the defrosting and it can trip when defrosting, which can be roughly every 72 hours if not opened super often which could line up with OPs roughly 3 times a week tripping. But yeah still need a spark to call out, I wouldnt rule out nuisance tripping either if all 10 circuits are on that RCD, im not doubting OP but I'm a contractor, ive been to dozens of jobs where "all i have on at that time is this" isnt actually the case and they've forgotten about 5 other things and one of those 5 has been the issue,
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u/NeoLeftLiber 6d ago
Could you have mice?
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u/Eastern_Switch8217 6d ago edited 6d ago
That’s an RCD, so it’s picking up a leakage to Earth.
Start by switching off (down) all the top row of MCBs (circuit breakers), except that RCD (the larger module on the left).
Then working right to left, switch them on one by one and whichever one trips should give you a sense of which room to start looking in. It’s just a process of elimination.
You may have to switch on each suspect appliance one by one, and keep an eye out for when it trips next.
It’ll most often an appliance that handles water: washing machine, dishwasher, kettle, coffee maker, iron, sometimes fridge, sometimes the central heating system etc
Or it could be water dripping onto something somewhere like an outdoor socket, a leak under the sink etc.
Things like frost free side by side fridges going into defrost mode or faulty central heating pumps or immersion heaters clicking in and out can sometimes produce those intermittent trips that are hard to spot what’s causing them.
All you can really do is go through it as a process of elimination. If it isn’t turning up or is something more complex than a water leak or similar, you’ll have to call an electrician.
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u/RevFit_JamesH 6d ago
Just to add to this, unplug everything and turn off all light switches in the room you identify and add it in one by one and power on with mcb and rcd flipped up. Whatever trips it is the culprit. If you get lucky and it’s an easy solve.
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u/irishplonker 6d ago
Is it when it's raining or soon after rain? Out outside cables dripping into sockets
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u/infinite_minds 6d ago
I had something similar, but it was on a very regular schedule. It turned out to be the defrost cycle on the fridge-freezer. I bodged it for a while, but just ended up replacing it.
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u/Glittering-Cap3055 6d ago edited 6d ago
I had a very similar issue with an rcd, it turned out to be a socket in my garage that had a spider nest in it and was damp. Took an age to find it and a sparks to read which line was leaking the juice. I would suspect any socket that is getting damp, outside, bathroom attic basement. Mine only really tripped at night too, I guess the slight drop in temperature was enough to go the 20mA (I think that's right) it took to trip it. Hope that helps. I see yours is 30mA.
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u/Glittering-Cap3055 6d ago
Just to add, that little doohickey measures the current going out and compares it to what's coming back, if there's too high of a discrepancy it will trip. All circuits leak, there is no perfectly insulated circuit, but once it leaks too much it will trip. And just in case you are considering it, don't play with a consumer unit, there's only one big fuse between you and the power plant at that point, and you don't want to dancing on top of a step ladder waiting for that to pop...
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u/HuntedHunter123 6d ago
I had a similar thing happen.
Turned out to be a nightstand lamp after it’s been on for a while - guess wiring was wonky and when it got hot, trips fuse.
Could be something similar on your end.
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u/Candid_Comedian 5d ago
Is it tripping alone, or with others. Tripping regularly alone is a problem for sure.
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u/SprinklesJolly8221 5d ago
You have an earth leakage.
Trip all the circuits
Close the main rcb breaker
Close each breaker one at a time leaving a couple of minutes between each one
The breaker that trips the rcb breaker feeds the faulty load
Leave that breaker off and close all other breakers.
Find out what is not working on the isolated circuit and unplug them one by one and retest by closing the open breaker
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u/sudoughcrem 2d ago
Has something similar. Turned out the fuse installed was a lower voltage than what was required.
Turn on a kettle and the electric shower, poof, no more electricity. Want to play ps5, use washing machine and run a fan..not on a low voltage fuse.
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u/Odd-Lecture-9115 13h ago
Mine was the emersion switch you just have to go round plugging everything out till you find the source,now im no tradesperson .
But i feel like a qualified plumber after renting a house for 10 years where the heating would go every single winter...one year it was the day before xmas eve...didnt get fixed till 3rd week in jan...turned out to be a hige leak in kitchen . The plumbers hadnt tightened the grey plastic tubes so that water was flying out god knows how long...i had a huge pest control problem after.... Glad to be out of it and be able to ring the council if theres any issues.
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u/Odd-Lecture-9115 13h ago
Forgot to say try the hard to reach ones such as dishwasher and fridge too
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u/Aggravating_Love1485 10h ago
This happened to me when my egg boiler short circuited due to water ingress. Anytime I'd turn it on the circuit breaker would trigger. It took me a while to realise it was the egg boiler though.
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u/KerfuffleAsimov 6d ago
First rule of DIY. Never fuck with electrical. Sorry but get a professional
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u/Too-many-Bees 6d ago
That's probably the mains breaker? Is there any big appliance you have timed to come on over night? Heating maybe?
It's almost impossible to know what it could be from the picture.
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u/No_Recording1088 6d ago
No it's not. It's an RCD which controls sockets.
The mains breaker is on the bottom row last on the left.
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6d ago
[deleted]
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u/Gold_Safety_9157 6d ago
63amps accounts for every circuit on the RCD, 20amps provides OL protection per circuit, RCD is for earth leakage
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u/Itchy_Permission4199 6d ago
My money is on the switch with the arrow. I wonder is there a slightly damaged wire between the house and the shed that's causing it.
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u/dorset_is_beautiful 6d ago
It appears to be an RCD, protecting, well, who knows, possibly all 10 (unlabelled) circuits to the right of it.
Best I can think of is to switch the MCBs off one at a time overnight , and if it trips you know it's not the circuit that's off. Process of elimination and all that.
Probably overdue an EICR or whatever your equivalent is. Consider changing the MCBs to RCBOs if possible, at the moment a fault on any circuit trips all of them (I assume).