The resistance of a slug ins under 8kohms...

I had the same problem with a spider, which I found through trial and error. I don't know how it got in there, unless it squeezed in when it was a lot smaller and somehow managed to thrive in there.

I had a similar fault some years ago caused by ants. I found several of them fused together in an arch between the live and earth terminals in the wiring centre of my central heating.

I had exactly the same thing, except they went up the cavity and found a hole (that shouldn't have been there) that led to some dado trunking with sockets fixed along it.

Bill

Outside circuits like this should really have their own RCD.

Well yes, animals tend to cause issues don't they. The old chewed cable down the garden is quite common which is why many have that on a separate breaker of course. However when I was working in the 60s doing repairs on pcbs sent back from tv rental companies, I encountered many fried insects, usually spiders on pcbs. Whether said insects were the cause of the fault or collateral damage, as we say today, is never that clear though.

Brian

I got parents' desk fan out of the loft at the beginning of the summer and left it for them to use if they needed it. Later I hear it tripped the ring circuit. Quickly established it was due to earth leakage (RCBO), which was a first for me on a two-core double-insulated plastic cased appliance. I opened the plug, and there was a spider's web bridging the pins. Spider was not there and presumably left long before this happened. I had always thought that webs were insulators - silk was used as an insulator long ago. Cleared the web out and it was then fine.

Agreed. However you do know how difficult and expensive that could be when working in some houses.

What is missing is a double pole isolator for the outside electrics next to the socket the power was taken from.

I fitted a local RCD (a spur unit) for an outside socket at the front door before changing the CU to a split type with RCDs.

And it does seem to trip before the CU one. On the very rare occasion this has happened.

Yes - although most spur units are 2 pole these days?

I had one inside the washing machine do that. It just evaporated and made a smell. But then I don't have namby pamby earth leakage breakers.

Mine did.

Bill

How are they with brass and aluminium? Brian

I believe that it is good luck on which RCD trips first - TBH usually both trip.

Yes - all "switched" fused spurs are all double pole. I was not suggesting otherwise, just pointing out that I often just use a double pole switch in preference to a fused switch.

As you can appreciate my work sometimes has to be a compromise between the best available and the bare minimum depending what the customer wants or can afford.

eg Ideally I would put outside lights on their own RCBO, however a good comprimise is to use a double pole lightswitch for the outside lights and then power them from a local lighting circuit. If water does get into the outside light then the homeowner can isolate that outside light and restore power to the rest of the lights and anything else sharing that RCD. Such an installation costs less than £2 per outside light switch.

Missing from the description only.

We have a double socket and two fused isolators next to each other. One isolator is for planned future expansion.

Andy

Leakage on PC PSUs is common as anything. But on an earthless device - where is it leaking to? Surely you'd notice 30mA?

Andy

Inside the plug, between live and earth (or possibly neutral and earth, but I doubt it in the case of a spider's web).

Ah, silly me, I assumed it was one of these plastic earth pin things.

Andy