Consumer unit problem

I had a desparate phone call from my son in Kuala Lumpur, Malasia.

The main isolator in his consumer unit had tripped, he had no power and there was funny smell coming from the unit.

With no airconditioning in his 5 bed apartment the temperature was becoming unbearable.

He had called an electrician but nobody could come and fix the problem for at least 6 hours.

I told him to try remaking the breaker but it just tripped again and more smell.

The Malasian electrical wiring system is identical to the UK by the way.

Anyway the electrician eventually arrived and fixed the problem.

Can anyone guess what the problem was? Very unusual but no prizes.

I will tell you tomorrow.

Reply to
chudford
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Rat? Snake? Giant spider?

Reply to
S Viemeister

The main isolator was presumably not just a switch then, and was a RCD or similar...?

The smell would presumably be the clue. If it was a fishy /urine type smell then it would indicate a loose connection or other high resistance joint that was heating and causing the thermosetting plastic (probably urea formaldehyde) to breakdown and smell.

Alternatively it was something that had crawled into the CU and decided to exit this world as a part of a circuit forming significant earth leakage - frazzeled iguana anyone?

Reply to
John Rumm

He lives next door to a prison where they execute people in an electric chair. They couldn't get enough juice for the process so decided to 'borrow' some of your son's. The smell, burning flesh of course. Do I win a prize?

Reply to
Grumps

Clearly an ex-animal in the CU (otherwise not worth posting probably :o) ).

Hmm, my bid is a snake of some sort.

Reply to
Bob Mannix

Yes you're right the electrician fished a slightly cooked gecko (small lizard) out of the innards of the consumer unit.

I'ts surprising that such a small thing can trip a 100A breaker.

Reply to
chudford

It probably tripped a 30mA or 100mA RCD.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

So I was close with iguana then ;-)

Reply to
John Rumm

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