In our homes, there is a box that contains the gubbins for our homes electrical system.
This box has lots of wires and devices inside that control and monitor our homes electrical system to keep us safe.
In older properties with older electrical systems the box is often smaller and contains fuses or fuse wire devices.
The box pictured above is a modern “consumer unit” which has ‘trip switches’ rather than fuses of or fuse wire devices.
The older fuse box style boxes would blow a fuse or fuse wire when there was an electrical problem. This would then need to be replaced or re-wired in order to get the circuit back on and in some cases it would blow again immediately requiring investigation by an electrician to find out the cause.
Modern style consumer units have these ‘trip switches’ which trip off when they detect a fault rather than blowing a wire or a fuse. The advantage of these more modern units is that they can easily be reset after a fault, they contain safer devices to protect us and offer much better electric shock protection for the whole property in general.
When a trip switch on fuse box won’t stay up there is generally a problem that needs to be investigated by an electrician. If the switch has gone off then resetting it more than once is asking for trouble.
What does a trip switch do?
Different trip switches do different things but they are all there to protect the electrical installation and its users from harm. When a trip switch trips it has to get rid of the fault that has been generated. This involves safely disposing of an electrical fault current that is very large. The trip switches are designed to do this safely and without damage HOWEVER, asking a trip switch to dispose of this large fault current over and over can have consequences. These switches are designed to do this very rarely and not every 5 minutes all weekend!!
If you have a trip switch that is constantly tripping then it is VITAL that you have an electrician out to look at the causes for this.
What do the different trip switches do?
There are a number of different trip switches that may be in the consumer unit. These are as follows:
- MCB
- RCD
- RCBO
- RCCB
- AFDD
Each of these trip switches performs slightly different functions and some do the same job.
- An MCB of Miniature Circuit Breaker, is a device that will trip under two circumstances. When there is a fault involving a very high current flow in a circuit such as a nail through a cable touching line and earth wires together and when there is a gradual and prolonged overload such as lots of appliances being used at the same time. These devices offer protection to the cables in the home but no electric shock protection.
- An RCD or Residual Current Device is effectively an electrical balancing scales. It monitors electrical current flow in a circuit and will trip if it detects any current missing. The assumption is that the missing current is flowing through a human body! These devices are much more sensitive to tripping that other protective devices although they offer no protection for overload in a circuit.
- An RCBO is very clever indeed! It is an MCB and and RCD all in one. These perform both functions and will trip in lots of different circumstances. They are also massively more convenient if there is ever a fault in your home as you won’t lose lots of things all at once. If there is a fault on the cooker circuit then JUST THAT CIRCUIT will go off.
- RCCB a Residual Current Circuit Breaker is effectively just another RCD device.
- AFDD is an Arc Fault Protection Device. These are an MCB, an RCD and fire protection all in one device. At the time of writing, they are relatively expensive and can mean a new fuse board can costs a few thousand pounds. The devices are coming down in price and we hope to be fitting them as standard as soon as they are more affordable.
You can see that if your “TRIP ON FUSE BOX WON’T STAY UP” then there can be a lot of different switches and different reasons for this. It is not always possible to reset these things yourself and constant resetting of a switch will eventually break it! Its best to have these things checked out before they become expensive problems.
Is there anything I can do myself?
Yes actually there is. We are really nice people 😊 and we have written a help sheet just for you, to try to save you money, time and aggravation. The help sheet will go through the issues step by step to enable you, in some cases, to restore power and possibly find the cause without our intervention.
The help sheet is here: https://www.electricalfaultsfixed.co.uk/helpsheet/help-my-house-electrics-are-tripping
We hope that it helps you find the answers to your problems. If you are still having problems then it will be necessary for us to come out and help you in your home.
When can you come out?
If you require us to attend then we will normally request the first hours labor via credit or debit card / BACS before we head over. We often have to leave a job, load a van in the middle of the night and so on before coming over to you so please ensure that you wish us to attend and are happy for us to do this. We can take calls for emergencies and attend emergencies 24 /7. Telephone advice and quote enquiries are only available during working hours however. For more information, contact us today.
