My main trip keeps going, at random times day or night, why?

Question

I'm in a rented house in the UK and my landlord says there is nothing that can be done. Is he right?

Answer 1

Jayktee is absolutely right, this type of fault is difficult to find.
if its your RCD device that trips on your board it has a small button on it marked "test".
If this is the case then you have something which is tripping this device from time to time but not all the time.
In one case I had an rcd tripping all the time but there were 3 items that had earth leakage on them.it was a job to find them too.
It may be your fridge, immersion heater , heater pump, boiler,or some other device so your only course of action is to try and isolate the thing thats tripping it.
Switch off 1 item each night until it stops and then you have found the problem.

Answer 2

If you mean your RCD or RCCB? Then he is WRONG, you have electrical leakage to earth (Insulation breakdown) from an appliance or the wiring in the order of 30ma (milliamps). It could be one item or a combination of many. The ONLY way to trace it is to first test all the appliances and then the wiring, separating each and every circuit at the consumers unit. A Megger or similar insulation tester is required for this, you can not do it yourself.

Intermittent faults are a bit harder to trace but should show up with the correct instrument. I do this fault tracing on a regular basis.

Answer 3

if the main 'trip' is an rcd it will probably be an appliance like your fridge or freezer or maybe an immersion heater, if you have one.
try switching off the the above appliances a night at a time to find out which one is causing the problem.. if the appliance was part of the flat when you moved in i would immagine it is the landlords responsability, if it's the immersion heater it's definatly his problem... good luck

Answer 4

the fault probably lies with something that switches on and of ie fridge boiler exatra. try and unplug one at a time to find the cause. hope this helps.