A Word Of Warning/preparation

[vinylman]

Hi Folks,
As I've noticed a few fellow citizens of Leeds (U.K.) posting here, I thought I'd better post this little bit of info. I'm working nights at the moment and around an hour ago got a 'phone call from home; the power to all the mains sockets in the house was out, although all the house lights were still on. Fortunately, an emergency council electrician was there within an hour.
Apparently, while I was in kip today, the council started sending people round to change the (rather elderly) fuse boxes. The emergency electrician told my Mother when he came that these new boxes are ''rather sensitive'' and it could happen again. Comforting thought, eh?.
At least when a fuse box goes pop, it usually takes the lights, too, but with these, you could be reading in bed and not know the mains sockets had gone down. Until next morning............
I thought my fellow Leodians should be aware of tonight's events. It may never happen again, but, if these new boxes are ''rather sensitive''..............

 

[celaeno]

that's weird. you'd think that with new comes improved as well.

 

[vinylman]

I'm sure it does, occasionally.

 

[Arimus]

Even with old style catridge fuses the ring main and lighting circuits are on different fuses so one can and usually does blow without the other going unless you've got a major wiring problem (or a leak...)

The newer circuit breaker type protection tends to be more sensitive to peak loading so for instace if you turn several appliances on at once you get a large current draw all at once which can blow the fuse...

And thinking about it if you had a lot of tanks with heaters I wonder if all the heaters kicking in at once could trigger it?

 

[raptorrex]

something else you could look into. most RCD (fuse) units in today's consumer (fuse) boxes. work both on power overload and on earth leakage, if you have a loose earth connection somewhere in your connections. the fuse will pop every time it moves. and heat of current may be enough to make the wire move!

todays RCDs are indeed sensitive, but only in so much as they will pop at their correct rating. not 10 amps above or below rating. their sensitive reputation is more often than not caused by earth leakage or other loose connections.

 

[vinylman]

Thanks for those posts; hopefully it won't happen again when I'm on nights. Now for a puzzler; since this happened (Wednesday night/Thursday morning) I've come downstairs on a morning to find what I can only describe as some kind of transparent 'film' on the water's surface. It can be removed by placing a sheet of kitchen paper on the surface and quickly lifting it off. This has only happened since the power cut; the mains power was off less than two hours. Water parameters are all normal. No whiff, either. Any ideas please?.