Be Excellent To Each Other

Our house has 2 fuse boxes. 1 for general leccy, and another for heating (we're in the sticks so no gas etc).

Fusebox 1 (heating and water) tripped earlier. The master switch tripped, not any of the little breakers that go to the individual circuits.

It refused to switch back on until I left the breaker marked "water 2" off.

"water 2" is now off. If you switch "water 2" on, even with everything else off, the master still trips.

Now I would have thought if there was a problem water 2's breaker would have tripped, not the main master fusebox switch.

So what gives? Any ideas?

Maybe the fuse for Water 2 is faulty.

Get a multimeter on No.2, or just replace the fuse, they do go bad sometimes.

That's what I was thinking. No idea how to change it over mind. Might have a fiddle.

Appears you can't swap the trip units around without presumably taking the main cover off the box. I'm not in the habit of messing around with electricity so it may have to be a qualified tradesman who does the job.

There's something to be said for good old fashioned fuse wire. When the lights blow in my office I have to go old school!

Wear rubber gloves or something.

Back when I used to be into my pinballs, any weird shit a table did always started at the fuse for that circuit and panned out from there, I realise this is not the same as house fuses as such, but I think the general principle is a sound one.

Rubber coated pliers (pref needle nosed)

The answer is probably to turn the leccy off at the master switch. But I'm not doing that at this time of night! Will also need a torch as the cupboard is dark.

Then expect a spark when you replace the fuse.

What are the ratings of the breakers? Is the water 2 breaker a higher rating than the main one for some strange reason?

One may be just a breaker that trips when the current is too high and the other could be an Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker (ELCB) which trips when there is an earth fault.

Has chinny posted since this? :?

Mr Chinny-in-law is going to have a look at lunchtime. We still have hot water so its not a panic. The top heating element of the boiler is getting hot, but the bottom one isn't.

No idea why it has 2 elements on 2 circuits, and no idea why each has its own timer (and neither do we know which timer is which).

I'm here, just been tied up. I had a look but decided to leave well alone as the whole cover would need to come off.

It'll be an earth fault in an immersion element, they don't last forever.
Disconnect each element / heater in turn until you find the culprit (RCD stays on) then replace that. You shouldn't need to open any consumer units.

Mr Chinny-in-law has just reported he thinks this is what the fault is.

Guess its time to call a plumber. Might be easier to get both replaced as surely the other element can't be far behind.

Yeah, possibly. Bear in mind if they are top mount, you can easily do it yourself, elements are about £20 in BandQ.

Mr Chinny-in-law suggested although we might do this, there's no telling if its not another problem. So better to get a pro in. After all you are messing around with electricity and water, not two happy bed fellows at the best of times.

I always thought they were dangerous because they got on too well?

Like Craster and badgers.

I tried fucking about with the dishwasher after it had flooded the kitchen floor. I was standing in a puddle jiggling the power lead about trying to turn it on.There was a very loud POP and some smoke.

Sometimes I'm amazed how I'm still alive. I never really think things through properly, and assume that stuff comes with built in safety features. That, or I'm indestructible.

A thread about electricity and I've not been mentioned. I feel like I've been forgotten

If it's any consolation, I was going to post something like 'See if Joans is free', but felt it was just a little too obvious.