Cooker fault

[Robin Spark]

Bumped into a mate friday night who a couple of years ago had an electric shower (i think about 8.5kw or slightly more) installed by a dodgy plumber who wired it into the same circuit breaker as the cooker.

Its ex council property and the consumer unit was really old green casing with Walsall Co. with black circuit breakers.

Anyway just after the shower was installed it kept tripping the breaker and as plumber wouldnt answer the phone to sort it out then i went round and fixed it by henley block and split tails and put in seperate shower Consumer unit and all has now been fine.

Sorry to take so long to get to the original point of this apparently about a month ago he had a fault on the cooker that caused the Cooker control switch to blow off the wall and it also took out the suppliers main fuse as well! He has had these replaced but I am just thinking why this has happened with regards to the 30 amp breaker in the consumer unit not disconnecting. Do you think that its due to the age of the circuit breaker or is likely that the circuit breaker was damaged due to the constant overload of having a shower and cooker installed on it?

 

[green-hornet]

When the suppliers main fuse blows thats a major problem, and the result of a major failure.

I have only ever seen it happen once, and that was a cable buried in concrete, it lasted about ten years but when it blew it did it with a bang.

You have to remember that all supplies will take a certain amount of fault current for a given time, this can be very long periods, see the BRB for the curve tables.

 

[Andy™]

its not always the fault alone that blows the main fuse.

been to a few similar where the total load has already been high (cookers, showers, washing machines etc already on), and then the fault is enough to take the main fuse

 

[batty]

[quote name='Andy

 

[Andy™]

As Andy says could be that main fuse has been weakend by overloading. Was it a 60 amp one by any chance?

its mostly 40 or 60a that i find blown. rarely 80

 

[Robin Spark]

Probably was 60amp as most of the houses of that age around here have them.

TBH I was a bit concerned as to the cooker outlet blowing off the wall!

I think I will contact him as well to see if he remembers if the circuit breaker operated as well.

Trouble is I know he aint got much money as he is out of work at the moment and got some ill health as well. So probabl it will be mates rates again

 

[green-hornet]

Probably was 60amp as most of the houses of that age around here have them.TBH I was a bit concerned as to the cooker outlet blowing off the wall!

I think I will contact him as well to see if he remembers if the circuit breaker operated as well.

Trouble is I know he aint got much money as he is out of work at the moment and got some ill health as well. So probabl it will be mates rates again

Electrical safety in the home has been highlighted in the past few years by the electrical safety council.

If he is on any kind of benifits and is finding it hard to survive, as I am sure most people are, he may be entitled to emergency (free) work to make his installation safe.

I would check out all options, and contact citizens advise for any help.

 

[Andy™]

he may be entitled to emergency (free) work to make his installation safe.

got any links?

 

[green-hornet]

Sorry I have not Andy.

It would appear with the banking fiasco and the reccession the electrical safety councils own grants scheme was put on hold, however there are certain cases where emergency safety repairs are taken on but i think you have to go through citizens advise for the full information.

 

[Robin Spark]

Thanks for the info I will look into it after I have been around his house to see what has happened and will test the circuit etc.