MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
We have some outbuildings which have their own consumer unit. Although there a number of sockets most of the time they are not used other than the freezer and the power supply to the chickens electric fence.
Recently we've been having a problem with the main switch (not individual ones for lights, sockets, etc.) on the consumer unit tripping out at random times.
I thought it was the electric fence but it tripped last night when the fence wasn't even plugged in.
I've currently got the freezer switched off to see if that could be the problem.
We do also have a PV installation that feeds into this consumer unit so this could be the issue.
What is the significance of the main switch tripping rather than an individual breaker?
My guess would be that the pv is causing high volts. The more pv people install, the more of a problem this will become.
I assume the main switch is an residual current detector, so detecting earth leakage. The individual switches are normally just fuses, so need a current overload to trip. If so, something has an earth leakage problem - eg iron, outside light maybe - anything with poor insulation or exposed to water would be where I'd look first....
If it is an earth leakage problem you have to isolate both L&N to track it down if you want to use a process of elimination as you can still trip one with a short between Neutral and Earth.
If it's an earth leakage can this only trip when the device is switched on i.e. the freezer or couold it be a faulty internal light causing the problem even though it's switched off?