The Home Improvements Thread (3)

Here we go with my crap electrical again.

I have a plug circuit that is tripping my earth leakage, everything on the circuit is unplugged. Yet it still trips the earth leakage.

BUT, when all the other circuits are off - it stays on without tripping... And I can use the plugs... Wtf
 
xrapidx said:
Here we go with my crap electrical again.

I have a plug circuit that is tripping my earth leakage, everything on the circuit is unplugged. Yet it still trips the earth leakage.

BUT, when all the other circuits are off - it stays on without tripping... And I can use the plugs... Wtf
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So what I have learned is this. Devices in isolation won't cause the EL to trip, however in combination they can, such as in your case. You have a very sensitive EL, they usually are when brand new. I found out the hard way.

It may be the devices, but it could be the plug point itself too, or the wiring. But usually, if the wiring and plugs are all correct and up to spec, its a combination of your devices or even a specific device.

Have you tried to move everything that is on that specific plug point, to another plug point, to observe if the same thing happen?

The real option, is to get a very expensive multimeter with logging capabilities. I wouldnt recommend this route for a home owner. If you were an electrician its a great tool.
 
Tinuva said:
So what I have learned is this. Devices in isolation won't cause the EL to trip, however in combination they can, such as in your case. You have a very sensitive EL, they usually are when brand new. I found out the hard way.

It may be the devices, but it could be the plug point itself too, or the wiring. But usually, if the wiring and plugs are all correct and up to spec, its a combination of your devices or even a specific device.

Have you tried to move everything that is on that specific plug point, to another plug point, to observe if the same thing happen?

The real option, is to get a very expensive multimeter with logging capabilities. I wouldnt recommend this route for a home owner. If you were an electrician its a great tool.
Click to expand...
Problem is - everything is unplugged on the circuit when it trips, all the switches are also off... So no clue. Probably going to have to get an electrician. Good way to spend my Saturday.

Say it's Circuit 6, by itself, I can use it - with eveything plugged in.

If I turn on any of the other circuits it trips EL, even if nothing is plugged in and all the switches are off on Circuit 6.

If I leave circuit 6 off, all the other circuits work.
 
xrapidx said:
Problem is - everything is unplugged on the circuit when it trips, all the switches are also off... So no clue. Probably going to have to get an electrician. Good way to spend my Saturday.

Say it's Circuit 6, by itself, I can use it - with eveything plugged in.

If I turn on any of the other circuits it trips EL, even if nothing is plugged in and all the switches are off on Circuit 6.

If I leave circuit 6 off, all the other circuits work.
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So the important thing to understand is this, there is some level of leakage between your live and earth or even neutral and earth or live and neutral.

In this case, probably from live, because it only happens when turning on things.

Now if you short them live and neutral, thats 100% leakage right?
The EL, would have a certain level at which it trips. Lets say, 0.01% leakage between live and something.

Every device in a house, has some form of leakage. It is just how it is. It sounds like, you have something with higher than normal leakage on circuit 6. Could be a device, could be that wire or plug points on it etc.

So, if you only have circuit 6 on, its below the EL trigger level.
or If you turn off circuit 6 and everything else on, its below the EL trigger level.

Basically, you need to find that thing, on circuit 6, which has too much leakage. Could be open wires where water flow through, or even not water but just high humidity. Could be a device/appliance on that circuit.

Its a mission to find. Best of luck is all I can say. These things are annoying. I had a sort of similar issue, which had me cut out a complete wire, buying a new one at R2500 (100m surfix) and run a new line myself to get rid of my EL trips whenever it rains. That was my nuclear approach to solving my own issue, but I at least sort of figured out why mine happened.
 
My biggest issue is this POS house, you can't access the wires beyond the plug points.

And as murphy would have it, I thought got closer to the issue, it looked like cicruit 3 and 6 couldn't be on at the same time - but - now - everything is on again and no tripping.

Wouldnt surpise me if there's water somewhere, considerig it coincides with the rain - and it woulnd't be the first time.
 
In my house, the plug point wires run through the foundation. The lights wires through the ceiling. I pray, my plug points never have an issue.
 
Tinuva said:
In my house, the plug point wires run through the foundation. The lights wires through the ceiling. I pray, my plug points never have an issue.
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In my previous house they ran between the downstairs ceiling and the upstairs floor - a gap of about 20cm.
 
Tinuva said:
In my house, the plug point wires run through the foundation. The lights wires through the ceiling. I pray, my plug points never have an issue.
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If they ever do you could just upgrade to wireless. :ROFL:

I have no ceiling between first and second floor. Just slabs. Must have been a b1tch to chase all my light wiring inside those hollow slabs.
 
I had this going on. Was not ideal. There is a fsck ton of water that comes down into that tank. And the tanks overflow just use to spil onto the lawn. Was the only way to get rid of the water and not let it spill out directly in front of my back door.
1714815257502.png

So I installed an extra muni water tank and got rid of the rainwater tank. And then I sorted out the gutter situation. Will see how it goes. There are 2 downpipes going into that on long gutter now. As you can see one is directly beneath the other one with a shoe to move water down the sloping side. Other one i had them put an extension in so it spills out a bit further down the roof.

Then had a funnel with double gutter downpipes installed in the corner by my storm water drain hole. Now just wait and see how it works. Not totally happy with the bends situation at the storm water hole. Will see how it works and maybe make a change.

1714815634751.png
1714815580307.png
1714815676235.png
 
I had that stormwater pipe installed when I bought the place and there was still an open stand on the other side.
It runs like so through the now neighbor's yard in the ground along the boundary wall into the veld. It copes reasonably well with big storms but at times the water spills onto the paving under the roof and runs through the drainage holes to my neighbor's side.

1714816227645.png
 
That is a bit of extreme engineering. What brand of gutters/downpipes? They look so nice.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: W@P
TedLasso said:
That is a bit of extreme engineering. What brand of gutters/downpipes? They look so nice.
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I have no idea. They roll the gutters on site so it's seamless. Downpipes and bends/shoes they order from somewhere.
 
xrapidx said:
My biggest issue is this POS house, you can't access the wires beyond the plug points.

And as murphy would have it, I thought got closer to the issue, it looked like cicruit 3 and 6 couldn't be on at the same time - but - now - everything is on again and no tripping.

Wouldnt surpise me if there's water somewhere, considerig it coincides with the rain - and it woulnd't be the first time.
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Your situation sounds confusing..

The only advice I can give is 2 similarish situations I had.

Once had randomly tripping circuits, couldn't even determine which one via the process of elimination, different ones would trip as I flicked the breakers one by one, had to disconnect every singe device in the house and reintroduced them one by one, the only thing I didn't plug out was the kettle, and it was the F'ing kettle. Thought that a "passive" device wouldn't cause any earth leakage.

Second one was a plug that would trip the breaker but only after a while, it was the current draw of the dishwasher when it went into the heating cycle, thought the dishwasher was faulty.
 
The_MAC said:
Only recommendation I can make (based on my own mistake) is to create a splash back by the stove using the same countertop, otherwise it looks good.
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Thanks any particular reason? My wife wanted to do white FLAT subway tiles which you cant see at the moment as this is only the kitchen rendering.
 
Snyper564 said:
Thanks any particular reason? My wife wanted to do white FLAT subway tiles which you cant see at the moment as this is only the kitchen rendering.
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Subway tiles look good, but the grout pics up all the muck, even if you use charcoal grout - a continuous ceaser/tech-stone type splash back will blend with the short edge splash back that is already on your design and will be very practical from a cleaning perspective.

Alternatively, I have seen people use feature tiles above the oven and then put a large sheet of glass with spacers covering it.

My mistake was exactly that, a short splashback using the counter stone, and then subway tiles between the counter and the hanging cupboards, and then subway tiles also between the stove and extractor, it looked nice until 1-2 years later, the white grout turned green due to us using the green Addis dishcloth :|

This was at our previous home:

1714984193360.png
 
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