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6 weeks ago we had a smart meter fitted by an nPower engineer. Within a day or two and since then the RCD trips every other day or so. Seemingly at random time - sometimes when using potential loading appliances like the iron etc. or sometimes when it's just ambient use.
Prior to the smart meter we never had a trip in the 3 years of living in the house. nPower don't want to know, and certainly don't want to send out one of their engineers to check 'their' work which is somewhat frustrating
So, my question is. Could it be the smart meter is tripping the RCD in someway or is it possible, by shear coincidence, that an appliance went flaky at exactly the same time?
RCDs detect an imbalance in the current between L & N, the normal cause of which is a short to Earth. Pretty unlikely the meter has caused this.
I had an RCD issue the other week. turned out it was a socket that had suddenly gone dodgy. Sparky found the issue in about 30 minutes and replaced the socket and everything is back to normal again.
Mine does this periodically (every couple of months) and I've never got to the bottom of it. Had a sparky out and he couldn't find the problem either.
It is likely something has changed in an appliance or there is a dodgy socket. You can figure it out by turning things off and isolating parts of the house if it happens fequently enough. I'm lead to believe it is most likely something with an electric motor it. Something to do with the construction being most likely to leak to earth. Fridge being a common cause.
Correlation does not equal causation and all that...
Easiest thing to do is unplug individual appliances for a day or so. Even the Fridge and freezer will be fine, especially if you dont open them!
If its at random times, and not when you switch something on, there's a high chance its something automated like the freezer compressor kicking in.
Our iron trips the RCD every so often - must have a steam leak in it somewhere...
Did he touch anything else when fitting? I've just found one of our recent issues, where the switch had been screwed back in the live wire had snagged and cut the insulation
Other thing we had was the dishwasher shorting when stuff got jammed in the filter and it stopped draining water well. Presumable a seal wasn't designed for constantly being submerged and would let a little water. Clear the filter and it would be okay for a while.
[b]Update. [/b]
Nothing for a week then Sunday night the RCD trips - at the same time I was ironing the kids uniforms (again).
Our iron trips the RCD every so often - must have a steam leak in it somewhere...
I think I've caught the culprit, thanks for all the suggestions.
Our tumble dryer started tripping our RCD when it was plugged in (but switched off). I replaced the mains filter and it worked fine after that.
Nothing for a week then Sunday night the RCD trips - at the same time I was ironing the kids uniforms (again).
Yep, cheap plastic plus electricity plus steam is a recipe for a short circuit....