Electrics gone out but fuse not tripped

[sammy1990]

I am a tenant living in privately rented accommodation, we moved in 3 weeks ago. We had no boiler since we moved in. The one that was in the house did not work, and national grid had capped of the gas saying the boiler was faulty. A gas engineer came out, tested the electrics at boiler and said the electrics were faulty to the boiler. He then installed a new boiler today, and as a temporary measure, connected the boiler with a 3 pin plug, saying they will need to fit a fused spur outlet and connect this to the boiler but that its a big job as flooring will have to come up for wiring so will do it on another time.

They fit the boiler, and tested it doing all the commission work. They ran the boiler on heating and ran it for 3 hours. It was working perfect. About an hour after they left, the electrics to the house suddenly cut out. They came back and checked and said they could not find any fault. The consumer unit was fine. None of the RCDs had tripped. They switched them all off and on again anyway, still no power.

They said they have done nothing to the electrics in the house, all they did was connect the boiler to a socket with a plug, therefore they cannot be held responsible for what has happened.

Can someone explain why the electrics have cut out but the RCD's have not tripped? Is this something dangerous as I thought the RCDs would have tripped if the boiler was causing an overload on the system.

 

[cydodimead]

the electrics to the house suddenly cut out

Sounds like a power cut to me and nothing to do with the boiler. Are other house/flats in the street in darkness too?

 

[Iggifer]

RCD's protect against current leakage (faulty appliances), MCB's protect against overloads.

It's worth just throwing all switches in the consumer unit down and up again just in case. Do you have any other kind of switches in between your meter and consumer unit?

If it's not a power cut, it could be the service fuse to your house has gone (VERY unlikely), plenty of things should have gone before this, but it is possible.

What kind of electricity meter do you have? Digital or dial? Is there a display on a digitial one/is the wheel moving if it's analogue?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

as a temporary measure, connected the boiler with a 3 pin plug, saying they will need to fit a fused spur outlet and connect this to the boiler but that its a big job as flooring will have to come up for wiring so will do it on another time.

Why? How far is the socket from the boiler?

About an hour after they left, the electrics to the house suddenly cut out.

Everything?

None of the RCDs had tripped.

How many are there? Do you mean RCDs or MCBs?

Untitled

• Taylortwocities
• 27 Mar 2010
• 43

They switched them all off and on again anyway, still no power.

Did they not check to see if power was getting to the consumer unit?

Is this a flat, or a house?

Can someone explain why the electrics have cut out but the RCD's have not tripped?

Something has tripped somewhere.

Where's your meter? Not a prepaid one, is it?

Is this something dangerous as I thought the RCDs would have tripped if the boiler was causing an overload on the system.

RCDs don't detect overloads.

 

[sammy1990]

the electrics to the house suddenly cut out

Sounds like a power cut to me and nothing to do with the boiler. Are other house/flats in the street in darkness too?

on the left is a takeaway, they have power. On the right, there is another chicken takeaway, but that's not yet opened. However there were builders in their today doing a lot of drilling. I noticed some of the lighting had been taken off, so they may have been working on electrics. Wonder if they may have caused it?

 

[sammy1990]

RCD's protect against current leakage (faulty appliances), MCB's protect against overloads.

It's worth just throwing all switches in the consumer unit down and up again just in case. Do you have any other kind of switches in between your meter and consumer unit?

If it's not a power cut, it could be the service fuse to your house has gone (VERY unlikely), plenty of things should have gone before this, but it is possible.

What kind of electricity meter do you have? Digital or dial? Is there a display on a digitial one/is the wheel moving if it's analogue?

I don't think its a power cut as the shop on the right is ok, shop on left is vacant (but building work was done there today)

The meter we have is a dial, the dial is horizontal meter, however the dial does not appear to be turning.

 

[sammy1990]

as a temporary measure, connected the boiler with a 3 pin plug, saying they will need to fit a fused spur outlet and connect this to the boiler but that its a big job as flooring will have to come up for wiring so will do it on another time.

Why? How far is the socket from the boiler?

About an hour after they left, the electrics to the house suddenly cut out.

Everything?

None of the RCDs had tripped.

How many are there? Do you mean RCDs or MCBs?

Untitled

• Taylortwocities
• 27 Mar 2010
• 43

They switched them all off and on again anyway, still no power.

Did they not check to see if power was getting to the consumer unit?

Is this a flat, or a house?

Can someone explain why the electrics have cut out but the RCD's have not tripped?

Something has tripped somewhere.

Where's your meter? Not a prepaid one, is it?

Is this something dangerous as I thought the RCDs would have tripped if the boiler was causing an overload on the system.

RCDs don't detect overloads.

The 3 pin plug is plugged in about 3 meters from boiler.

Yep, everything has gone out, sockets, lights, no power at all.

Looking at the pics it looks more like the MCB's, theres about 6 I could see in a row, with a larger one on the far left which also had an orange test button.

no its definitely not a prepaid meter, it has a horizontal disc in a black box.

 

[riveralt]

With some RCD's you have to reset them by holding the button down while turning the little dial to on. If yours is similar to this then do this with the boiler off just in case it is causing the installation to trip.

As long as you have double checked that the RCD (orange button device) is in the on position as are the MCB's then contact the property owner/management company tell them to get an electrician out asap.

If you are working in the dark then you don't want to be messing about with the electrics.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

And if you have a socket 3m from the boiler, be aware that the landlord will certainly want any spur for the boiler done using surface mounted wiring rather than start taking up flooring.

Unless this is a posh pad.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

With some RCD's you have to reset them by holding the button down while turning the little dial to on. If yours is similar to this then do this with the boiler off just in case it is causing the installation to trip.

And some won't reset with any MCBs on, even if there's no problem on the circuit, so try turning every MCB off, push the RCD lever to off, then on, then start turning the MCBs back on.

If it trips when you turn the circuit with the boiler circuit on, unplug the boiler, repeat the above, and if it's OK. and then trips when you plug the boiler in, tell the landlord to shout at the people who installed it, and the people who came and said they could find nothing wrong.

 

[sammy1990]

With some RCD's you have to reset them by holding the button down while turning the little dial to on. If yours is similar to this then do this with the boiler off just in case it is causing the installation to trip.

And some won't reset with any MCBs on, even if there's no problem on the circuit, so try turning every MCB off, push the RCD lever to off, then on, then start turning the MCBs back on.

If it trips when you turn the circuit with the boiler circuit on, unplug the boiler, repeat the above, and if it's OK. and then trips when you plug the boiler in, tell the landlord to shout at the people who installed it, and the people who came and said they could find nothing wrong.

we decided to get national grid out. they will be here soon. Had a look at boiler, its simply plugged into the wall socket with a plug so I fail to see why that would cause this. The boiler was also run for over 3 hours with heating on after they installed it, why would it run for 3 hours without cutting of power, then suddenly cut power? so glad I am not an electrician lol who needs this stress!

 

[securespark]

NG are gonna help with the electrical side?

 

[RF Lighting]

NG will do nothing.

You need to get on to your landlord and get an ELECTRICAN out ASAP to have a look at your installation and see what's wrong with it.

 

[GavThePlumber]

You need to contact Western Power Distribution if the fault is not within your building, not NG

 

[GavThePlumber]

and the FCU needs to be a maximum of 1m away from the boiler