[Closed] Blown Ring Main

any outside sockets? wet windy conditions points to water ingress. make sure everything is unplugged. check again because stuff is easy missed. i'll monitor the post and help as much as i can.
Rich.

Check washing machine/dishwasher - if the outlet from them is anywhere near the socket it's vaguely possible* that the wind m ay be blowing water back up and near to the electrics.

*only very slightly, vaguely, possible but you never know - I have seen it happen before.

Could be the RCD itself. Tried swapping it with another from an OK circuit and seeing if the fault follows?

Unscrew all of the socket plates and check the termination first. You never know it may be any easy fix and you'll save yourself some money if it is.

Is there possibly a socket spurred off the main that you have forgotten?
I had this problem and ir was down to a chaffed cable that was routed through a wall and was shorting out, took a while to find!,
Also change the rcd, just to eliminate

As well as sockets, do you have any fused spurs for stuff like wall heaters, extractors. Worth popping the fuses out of those and trying to reset. It's a few hours late, but if something has overheated and caused the problem, you'll often smell it before you tale the socket/frontplate off.

Had a similar problem when we moved in. Turns out, it was a cut in the cable where it came in through the back box. Found it by splitting the ring into two radials. Then just moved the open point around until I'd isolated the fault between two sockets.

Where are you, there are some sparkies on here?

Water should be the first pointer with the wind and rain we've had in the last few days.
Even if unplugged/disconnected, any water in a socket outlet can cause a neutral to earth fault, that would trip a rcd immediately.
So, outside sockets and lights would be my first inspection point.
Then any sockets that may have got wet - had one a few weeks ago where they had washed the kitchen walls, water had ran down the wall into the socket face, yet they didnt realise that was why the RCD kept tripping.

So, outside sockets and lights would be my first inspection point.

RCD's are a nightmare. Trip at 30ma which is F-all.

you need to test every bit of wiring on that circuit. A short neutral to earth is favourite. unscrew every socket off the wall, check the terminals in the back of them and that they are tight. Sounds like half a days work to track it down

C

You have an earth neutral fault I would suggest. This will take the rcd out even with the offending circuit isolated as the fault can track back through the neutral which does not get disconnected. This can be resolved by disconnecting neutrals from the consumer unit. With the neutral or neutrals in the case of a ring main disconnected on the offending circuit and the breaker for that circuit switched off you would be able to reset the rcd. This is of course not a recommendation to whip the cover of the unit and start disconnecting cables and I suggest you call out a sparky.

Thanks to all for your comments and suggestions.

The point has come when I have to hold my head up high and admit that I don't know enough about household electrics to undertake any repairs and in order to avoid the first Darwin award of 2014 I will call an electrician out.

Hope you all have a great Christmas.

Had something similar last week. Had to get my nephew who's a sparky out in the end to megger every cable. Turned out a mouse had chewed through the twin and earth just where it dropped through a stud in the loft. Was on the blooming last cable there was left to check too!

I thought this was a thread about over indulgence.