Melb. southern - electricity problems at 11am - anyone else?
Submitted: Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 11:19
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Mike Harding
Both yesterday and today my ELCB (electrical earth safety switch) has tripped at exactly 11am. I suspect the cause of this may be the control signals which the electricity supply company (AGL) frequently send across the
grid to provide remote control of their switching and metering equipment. The fact that this has only just started suggests they have changed something?
I has this problem a few years ago (same house) at 10pm and 7am most days the switch would trip but after a few weeks it stopped doing it? It's probable that my particular ELCB is more sensitive to this than other makes but I would be interested to hear if others have experienced an issue.
Mike Harding
mike_harding@fastmail.fm
Reply By: Member - Doug T (W.A) - Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 11:33
Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 11:33
Could be Ghost's too
AnswerID:
231970
Reply By: Member - JohnR (Vic)&Moses - Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 11:44
Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 11:44
Only when rain had fallen from the East onto a particular power point Mike. Perhaps Bonz just knew where to tether your goat. Long way from
Darwin though;-) Just suggested him as he knows what makes Citypower and Powercor tick.
AnswerID:
231973
Follow Up By: Bonz (Vic) - Tuesday, Apr 10, 2007 at 10:44
Tuesday, Apr 10, 2007 at 10:44
Hmmm I would talk to the AGL techo's
FollowupID:
493409
Reply By: Member - Toolman (VIC) - Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 12:46
Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 12:46
Mike,
No, I haven't noticed anything unusual at all around Berwick.
Toolman
AnswerID:
231981
Reply By: Member No 1- Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 13:33
Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 13:33
did it trip today?
could be the defrost system on a fridge or freezer
AnswerID:
231988
Follow Up By: Gob & Denny - Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 14:58
Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 14:58
give the man a new set of different glasses
my thoughts exactly but you beat me to answering
steve
FollowupID:
492917
Follow Up By: Mike Harding - Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 15:05
Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 15:05
Fair guess guys but both my fridge and freezer are manual defrost and, as I mentioned, this problem has occurred before.
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Follow Up By: Member No 1- Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 17:32
Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 17:32
electric water heater that is supposed to be on a late night tarrif?...maybe the time clock is not correct?
i reckon your fault is internal.....they, the switch, monitors the difference bewteen A & N....any discrepencies and it assumes the differnce is leaking to earth via a human or other means and consequently trips.....
check your alarm clock also
and you must have bloody old fridges!!!!!about time you traded them in and got some late model stuff and give swmbo something to show off to her mates hahaha
FollowupID:
492939
Follow Up By: Mike Harding - Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 17:42
Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 17:42
>electric water heater
Gas.
>i reckon your fault is internal.....they, the switch, monitors the
>difference bewteen A & N
I understand that - but spurious harmonics in the system will confuse them.
>
check your alarm clock also
My battery alarm clock is set to 5.52am :)
>and you must have bloody old fridges!
Freezer is 13 years old. Fridge is about 20. Use to have a self defrosting fridge/freezer but the element kept failing - bloody stupid (and energy using) way to do it in my opinion.
>about time you traded them in and got some late model stuff
>and give swmbo something to show off to her mates hahaha
No more swmbo - for a few years now :)
Mike Harding
FollowupID:
492940
Reply By: Gob & Denny - Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 19:13
Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 19:13
old or new doesnt matter most have an element that sits in the water tray underneath and dissapates any moisture that gathers and thats normally what plays up but theres plenty on here that know better ???????
steve
AnswerID:
232039
Follow Up By: Mike Harding - Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 19:33
Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 19:33
Emmmm....
I do and it isn't
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Reply By: Boldjack - Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 19:47
Friday, Apr 06, 2007 at 19:47
G'day Mike
Years ago I worked in a chemical plant in
Sydney where one of the boiler stations started to trip out and go off line for no apparent reason. The records started to show a pattern ,that it always happened around the same times of the day. It turns out that some instrument had become sensitive to the (ripple) that is sent in the electricity supply to turn the off peak water heaters on and off
Not that I'm electrically trained,but it seems to me your on the right track,whether the problem is caused by (AGL) or something in your system I don't know. What you are suggesting has been experienced before.
Cheers Boldjack.
AnswerID:
232042
Reply By: Brian T (VIC) - Saturday, Apr 07, 2007 at 14:51
Saturday, Apr 07, 2007 at 14:51
My guess would be that your ELCB/RCD is starting to fail and should be replaced soon. The control pulses the electricity company send down the lines shouldn't affect your property in that manner.
It wouldn't hurt to have the sparky that changes your safety switch(es) to
test your installation (house and appliances) for earth leakages, a small leak in one appliance may not generally cause any problem but multiple small leaks and possibly an electric motor with a faulty snubber circuit in it will trip an ELCB every time.I know this because in my line of work I am continually finding my customers have appliances with motors that cause line spikes besides the "apparent" problems with their electrically heated
spa pools drawing near capacity loads out of any given circuit in their property.
Sorry about the whinge about idiot customers.... it's been a long 4 day week.
But get the ELCB looked at a.s.a.p.
AnswerID:
232139
Follow Up By: Mike Harding - Saturday, Apr 07, 2007 at 17:39
Saturday, Apr 07, 2007 at 17:39
Thanks for that Brian. I doubt the ELCB is failing - they are a pretty simple design and tend to either work or not. But I have checked it and it's tripping at 21mA which is fine.
My house installation is OK too, my Megger shows all to be good and the appliances which tend to be a bit leaky are fine when checked individually. The only motor I have in the place (fridge/freezer aside) is the central heating blower and that hasn't been in use for months :)
I've contacted AGL and asked their tech. people to call me next week so we'll see that happens then. Interestingly, it didn't trip today?
Mike Harding
FollowupID:
493074
Reply By: Robin - Tuesday, Apr 10, 2007 at 15:22
Tuesday, Apr 10, 2007 at 15:22
Hi MIke
My guess is that you have wiring that is marginal somewhere and can be affected by damp.
Hence will tend to fail when weather gets wetter , and generally only happens once or twice and then local heating (from few milliamps via circuit) moves it out of detection range.
Robin Miller
AnswerID:
232554