keep waking up with no power.

[archie]

Over the last few years we have suffered intermittent power failures. Its always the whole house that goes off never just one circuit.

We have had 3 different electricians come round all of which have spent some time testing everything and none has ever located any faults.Its always at night during which time the only appliances running would be fridge freezer and heating.

Recently when we turn the power back on the consumer unit gives a long bleep which it never used to. Is this a clue? would it now be worth paying yet another large bill and getting someone else out. Thanks for any help.

 

[JohnKay]

Hi archie.

Sounds like a bit of a detective job here.

I assume this is an RCD in the consumer unit that's tripping. you have to bear in mind that it is sensing an imbalance between line and neutral, therefore an earth leakage from the neutral will trip it just as much as from line. So for checking purposes, it's no good just switching off appliances, pull the plug.

Could I suggest, just for one night, unplug everything, even any cordless phones, router, TV, the lot. The fridge should be OK for a few hours. I would tend to suspect the heating as it switches on in the morning.

If you do find the heating a likely suspect, please post a few details of the system.

I've never come across a consumer unit that beeps, are you sure it's coming from there, not another bit of tech in your home ?

Lets know how you get on.

 

[endoftheworld]

Turn each circuit on one at a time, then fire up each appliance one at a time. Start with class 1 appliances like heating, fridge, etc.

Did your sparky test the RCDs at 10mA for false tripping?

If it is the RCD tripping out it will probably be earth leakage from an appliance with a motor in it, so suspect heating and fridge first.

Once you suspect an appliance a simple PAT test should confirm it (insulation resistance test). All sparks, heating and appliance engineers should be able to do this in 5 minutes.