switch tripping

geotrig

Hi folks hope someone can help me ,

my Circut breaker keeps tripping the main switch pretty randomly .main things that are tripping it are the shower only occasinonaly ,dryer ,hoover and kettle .
they trip it one day but may be prefect the next anyone have any ideas why this is happening ?

coylemj

There is a sudden surge of current when you switch on a device with a heating element so it's possible that if someone plugs in a kettle and at exactly the same time someone else switches on a hair dryer or an electric heater on the same circuit then the combination of the two (or three) could flip the circuit breaker. If it only happens the odd time, there's probably nothing to worry about but if it's a frequent event then you'd need to get a professional to look at your setup.

An electric shower is a power hungry device, was it installed after the house was built and wired? Maybe the circuit it's on wasn't intended for such a device.

2011

geotrig wrote: »

Hi folks hope someone can help me ,

my Circut breaker keeps tripping the main switch pretty randomly .main things that are tripping it are the shower only occasinonaly ,dryer ,hoover and kettle .
they trip it one day but may be prefect the next anyone have any ideas why this is happening ?

First of all we need to identify the device that is tripping.

I think you may be describing an RCD (formerly known as an ELCB). It has a test button on it and looks like this:


Normally in Ireland a domestic installation should have a main switch fuse unit. As it is a switch it can not trip.
It looks like this:



Perhaps you can post a picture of the unit that is tripping.
Also, what rating is it? 40A, 32A ?
Can you confirm that your lights are still working when this unit trips, or do you loose everything?

geotrig

yeah lights are still working ...the ring is listed as 32a and is the one in the 2nd pic, i think i may have solved it i unplugged everythin in the house and just plugged in the devices that were tripping the system. it seems that even though the dryer wasnt turned on but plugged in it was causing the problem ...its now unplugged and everything else seems to be going ok as of now.

thanks for all the help guys much appreicated

Bruthal

geotrig wrote: »

i think i may have solved it i unplugged everythin in the house and just plugged in the devices that were tripping the system. it seems that even though the dryer wasnt turned on but plugged in it was causing the problem ...its now unplugged and everything else seems to be going ok as of now.

thanks for all the help guys much appreicated

A possible neutral to earth fault in the dryer. That itself wont trip the RCD if the dryer itself is not running, but it can trip the RCD when something else is then plugged in and used.

Bruthal

coylemj wrote: »

There is a sudden surge of current when you switch on a device with a heating element so it's possible that if someone plugs in a kettle and at exactly the same time someone else switches on a hair dryer or an electric heater on the same circuit then the combination of the two (or three) could flip the circuit breaker.

There is a fair surge for incandescent bulbs alright, since the elements become white hot almost instantly, and so their resistance component increases to 10 to 15 times the cold value.

For heating elements, that doesnt really happen, since the temperature change is not so big as a bulb, and is far slower.

The surge can be seen happening on an esb meter when a 100w standard bulb is turned on, but not when a heating element comes on.

The op problem here is likely an earth fault tripping an RCD.

2011

Bruthal wrote: »

The op problem here is likely an earth fault tripping an RCD.

Yup, that is what I suspected.