Power just went off in my house, what to do?

[davejonesbkk]

Im used to power cuts in many places Ive lived in Bangkok but its just gone off in my rented house for the first time and its only my house and not the area.

On the mains switch board it looks like the safety cut switch is off and when I try to put it back on it just flicks of again. Air con still works and its only the lights and things running off the plugs that arent working. When it happened we werent doing anything out of the ordinary, had a bunch of lights on and I was on my PC.

Any advice would be appreciated!

[inzman]

Unplug everything and shut off the lights. If the power comes on, plug things in one at a time. If it trips, you know where the fault is.

[Crossy]

Inzman has it, unplug everything, turn off all the breakers.

Assuming the Safe-T-Cut stays on, turn breakers on / plug stuff in until it trips.

If the Safe-T-Cut refuses to stay on even with everything turned off assume a neutral-earth fault, not an immediate hazard in itself but needs sorting.

Does your Safe-T-Cut have a 'direct' setting? If so use it until you can get a sparks in to look at the problem.

[stoneyboy]

For those unaccustomed with the term Sparks or sparky in this instance it means Electrician.

[davejonesbkk]

Thanks guys, I unplugged everything and then the mrs called the electricity dept and they talked her through resetting all the switches etc. it looks like its something to do with the plug outlets downstairs so we cant use those now until someone comes round tomorrow. I cant think what could have caused it though. We got a new toaster a week ago but have used it fine several times now, I believe it was plugged in at the time.

[lopburi3]

A lizard can set up housekeeping in an outlet and cause issues - you did unplug everything for your check, including refrigerator?

[RichCor]

The reason for unplugging everything is an attempt to isolate/identify the offending device or circuit.

So far you've successfully isolated the issue to "something to do with the plug outlets downstairs". Great.

You can continue trying to isolate by unplugging anything/everything from that circuit/line (it helps if you can see and follow the actual wire along, even it's branch points. If you've identified and isolated (removed or switched off) 'everything' that connects to that circuit and it still pops/opens the breaker when you attempt to reset it then most likely there is a short/fault condition in the wiring along the line.

If you've already unplugged the new toaster during your tests then it's unlikely that it was the cause.

A standard circuit breaker will 'open' when its Amp rating capacity is greatly exceeded.

A Safety-cut breaker will 'open' when current usage isn't balanced between Line/Neutral usage (such as current misdirected to Ground)

[Torrens54]

Invest in a WIND FARM.

[Artisi]

Invest in a WIND FARM.

Doesn't overcome overload, faulty wiring or a faulty appliance.

[davejonesbkk]

Thanks guys, I never found what the problem was tbh. Everything downstairs has been plugged in again for last 2 days now and not had any problems. Do these things just happen from time to time?

[lopburi3]

It can - as in the case of a lizard walking across the live wires or hot metal case of washer/toaster/microwave or something - or moisture getting into an outlet box and drying out. I would buy a cheap neon screwdriver that tests for electric (cheap and always good to have) and use it to touch test all electric equipment external metal parts to be sure there is no leakage (safer than finding out later with an actual touch).