A common complaint in some Essex households is that fuses keep tripping. While tripping RCD fuses can be irritating RCD’s are wonderful devices that protect us from electrical shock and fires. Tripping fuses indicate that there’s a fault somewhere in the electrical system or the system’s overloaded. Here’s how to diagnose the cause of your tripping fuses.
RCD fuses (Residual Current Devices) detect excessive currents and respond by cutting off the power supply. Common causes of tripping fuses are too many lights on, overloaded sockets (too many appliances using the same extension lead) and an overloaded system (too many appliances on at once in the home)
A fuse board fitted by a competent electrician will have labelled fuses so if it’s one fuse that’s tripping you should be able to narrow down the culprit appliance by room or by floor if it’s not possible to do this you’ll have to try switching on every household appliance. Usually, it will be a particular fuse like the sockets or cooker, but sometimes it will be the main fuse that’s tripping. A tripping mains fuse is usually a problem with the fuse box, the wrong fuse’s fitted, or the wiring’s incorrect either way when it comes to a fault with the mains fuse board your going to need a certified Electrician to take a look at it.
Reset the tripped fuse and try turning on all appliances/lights one by one until the fuse trips again this way you can determine which appliance is tripping your fuse. After testing every appliance if the fuse doesn’t trip then it’s possible that overload is causing the tripping. In this case, you are using too many appliances at once and overloading your system. Find a way to use fewer appliances at any one time. For example, don’t run the washing machine while cooking the Sunday roast, or use the hairdryer while watching your 90 inch LCD TV and your tripping problems should be solved. To start with make sure there aren’t too many appliances plugged into one socket, moving appliances to different sockets may be enough to stop the fuses from tripping.
Ok so what if it’s a single appliance causing the tripping? You have two choices get the appliance looked at or replace it. Most electrical appliances come with a warranty, and you may have taken out additional protection so first of all take a look at your warranty and appliance insurance (if you have it) an engineer should come out for free and fix your appliance.
Has your warranty expired? No protection?
Check your home insurance many policies include appliance protection, and if you’re not covered don’t worry most appliances can be fixed cheaply you’ll have no trouble finding a specialist for your faulty appliance.
In most cases going through the above procedures should eliminate the cause of tripping fuses; however, if your fuses are still tripping you probably have a fault somewhere in the electrical system itself. Maybe a damaged or loosely connected wire which sounds like a headache, how will you find it? Don’t worry! We can quickly detect faults with our thermal imaging cameras, once found these faults are rectified quickly. So if you’re still suffering from tripping fuses give us a call were more than happy to help.