Electrical problem

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sampedrena
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Posts: 257
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:13 pm
Location: Marbella

Electrical problem

Postby sampedrena » Wed Jan 13, 2021 4:55 pm

Just wondering if anyone with electrical knowledge might have some suggestions to help me towards a resolution for an electrical problem.

We are in an apartment block where the supply enters the building and splits into two "distribution cupboards", each one housing the meters for half of the apartments, the supply cables then leaving the cupboards to go to individual apartments in their own ducting. On Sunday afternoon we had problem which started around 3.00pm and continued to about 7.00pm, with the RCD continually tripping over the period - when switched back on it would trip again after anything from 5 to 20 minutes - the MCBs for individual circuits remained on. I lost count of the number of times after the 20th. During those hours, I had every electrical item we had unplugged individually one at a time but the tripping continued. This has never happened before, and though we had rain that day it was very light, nothing like the torrents we sometimes have. The problem has not reoccured since 7.00pm Sunday.

Now the weird bit. Later that night I was out in the central courtyard looking for some possible cause, when I dicovered that three other residents had had exactly the same problems. The times were 3.00 to 7.00 just like ours, and they also had similar numbers of trips. The four apartments are on different floors, and neither above, below nor adjacent to each other. Three of us had our meters in the same cupboard, but one was sited in the other cupboard about 40 meters away. Not all apartments were affected when we asked anyone who was about, it seemed to be just the four of us though several owners are away or on holiday at present

I contacted the Administrator, and he sent a technico from the company who do any electrical work in the building. He was here all morning and checked the installations in both cupboards, the distribution through the ducting where accessible and our individual panels in our apartments. He could find no problems and was not able to offer any reason for the fault, other than just "coincidence" - just had an email from the Administrator confirming that.

The four of us cannot believe that. I reckon I have more chance of winning the top prizes in both the UK Lotto and Euromillions in the same week, than our problem being coincidence.

If anyone has any inspiration would be grateful - except if anyone says it's down to Covid !!

Thanks, Parilla.
La vida es un espejo, si sonries ella te sonrie

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costakid
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Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 11:55 am
Location: malaga este

Re: Electrical problem

Postby costakid » Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:16 pm

I would say water has got in somewhere or another theory the system is overloaded because a neighbour is having a little cannabis grow and had all the equipment on.

El Cid
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Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 10:42 pm
Location: La Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada

Re: Electrical problem

Postby El Cid » Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:41 pm

It’s not an overload, that would not trip the RCD. it’s usually damp. A short circuit would trip the main fuse. An overload would trip the potencia (ICD) trip.

We had a lot of trouble with the RCD tripping caused by a problem on the electrical circuits in the flower beds for lighting. A lot of rewiring later the problem was solved.

Sid


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