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For the last three mornings, we've woken up with no electricity on. The main switch on the consumer unit is tripped, all of the other individual circuit switches are still in place.
Nothing in the house is left on overnight that hasn't been left on before. The only thing that has changed is, I fitted a new fridge 10 days ago. Straight forward 3 pin plug in the same socket as the old fridge. Temp set at 4 degrees, ample ventilation.
My assumption is, it must be this. I'll be switching it off tonight before bed to see if anything different happens.
If my assumption is correct, is there any way to test the fridge to see if it's trying to draw more current than it should, before going back to the supplier for an exchange? Or, just do the overnight test thing, and take it back?
Run an extension to to the fridge from another socket?
You may have just loosened a wire in the existing socket.
Electric tripped overnight for me on Monday night/early morning Tuesday (Manchester). Got a text from Power-grid apologising for outages on Tuesday morning. (fault on their high voltage network ) I wouldn't assume its something you're doing
Heard nothing from powergrid people, and they were on the ball with texts before Xmas, when my street had problems.
I'll give the extension a try and see what happens 👍
The main switch on your consumer unit is likely to be fitted with an RCD too. So it could be picking up an earth fault (poor insulation, badly fitted plug, disturbed socket, etc etc). As it gets cooler in the evenings perhaps some condensation on the electrical parts somewhere to create the earth fault.
If the other MCBs are all on, for an overcurrent fault - due to discrimination, they should trip first before the main incomer switch.
Switch the suspected unit off overnight to see if it happens again.
Could it be the central heating pump coming on overnight? That turned out to be my problem.
If it's the fridge I'd expect it to trip every time the compressor turns on. You can trigger it by turning down that fridge thermostat.
If you have multimeter, you can measure the current draw. May be this article will help you https://homesteady.com/12143724/how-to-test-a-refrigerator-compressor-relay
If its the RCD tripping, that can be leakage between neutral and earth, not current overload. If its not the fridge, I'd unplug everything you can, and then gradually start plugging things back in until it trips overnight again.
Did it again yesterday around 5pm.
This time, at first, I couldn't get the main switch to go back on. Unplugged the fridge - nope. Switched off the circuit with the fridge on it, and it switched on. Plugged the fridge in again, and turned the temp up to 5 degrees (at 4, food felt really, really cold), and it's been okay since - 14 hours now.
If you have multimeter, you can measure the current draw. May be this article will help you
Yeah, that looks a little beyond my ability/capability. Thanks though.
You can trigger it by turning down that fridge thermostat.
I'll bear that in mind if the temp increase doesn't stop it happening. If that's the case, I'll be on to the supplier
Why did you replace the fridge ?
Any chance the socket it's plugged into has got wet or corroded .....
We had this and I traced it to a faulty mains filter on our tumble dryer which could trip the elctrics even when not being used.
Why did you replace the fridge ?
Any chance the socket it’s plugged into has got wet or corroded
It just stopped working, and the back of it was constantly getting covered in ice. The socket it's plugged in to, is inside the neighbouring cupboard. That's the end cupboard, so unlikely to have that happen, the fridge is the closest appliance or source of heat/moisture etc
So you’ve got an rcd main switch? As in everything in the house goes off when it trips? It’s unlikely to be an appliance but still possible. If I get called to a fault like this in the winter I always start with outside lights and sockets as they have a habit of filling with water and draining over time
If I get called to a fault like this in the winter I always start with outside lights and sockets as they have a habit of filling with water and draining over time
As Mark says, water ingress is the usual cause of faults like this. I had one where inside of the socket, in a brick wall,was soaked through damp.
Another option, which is very rare, but does happen, have you, or your neighbour had a smart meter fitted recently? They are known to interfere with old RCDs (sounds like yours is old if it is the main switch too), and it usually happens when they phone home with the meter readings in the early hours.
It's the fridge. When I was at the mod all our film, 5 chest freezers full was on a non RCD circut. Electrians onsite said it was because sometimes things that turn on and off via thermostat can cause tripping of rcd's
Surely the fridge is on all day too? Why would it only trip at night?
Anyway, I was hoping this thread would be about recommendations for a rave or something...
Edit: sorry, I'm blind
Did it again yesterday around 5pm.
I had a similar problem and it was caused by rat ingress. They had chewed through a socket ring. An electrician was able to fix it for the cost of the callout by turning that bit of the ring into a spur (or something like that). No floorboards or skirting boards were moved.
I had random tripping. After a bit of isolating it turned out to be a bad socket with built in USB port.
My understanding is that things with electric motors can be a problem, particularly big ones.
Damp and dodgy/damaged wiring another option. We had this problem and it related to damp on a wall with a socket. Another time it was the fridge, which gave up shortly.
Is the new fridge larger than the old one?
Tripping is more likely to be the LSD than the RCD or MCB. Possibly just a bad batch🤷