RCD box buzz’s then tripped out

[J88arv]

Morning all

we have a Rayne RCD kit fitted in our van, works fine normally however today it tripped twice.

first time we had the fridge and a kettle running off 1 socket (both camping equipment) and it tripped

second time the wife ran her hair dryer off the same socket and it tripped again. Went to reset and it buzzed for a second then was fine? We are in Cornwall at the moment so haven’t got any tools with me or anything to look inside but wanted peoples views?

must add, we’ve used this now a good 4 separate times camping which was fine

thanks

 

[Big Al]

Since you have used different appliances in the socket you can rule them being the cause. What is the load for the socket in question? A hairdryer would be about 8.3 amps.
You could have a faulty breaker.

 

[J88arv]

I have no idea on load sadly, how would I find out?

 

[Big Al]

Look for your consumer electrical box. Look for Sockets... and the trip will have a number on it eg 30 = 30 amp atc.

 

[Deaky]

If it's the RCD tripping then it could be a loose connection in the back of the socket.

 

[AussieMick]

I agree with Deaky especially if it is buzzing, sounds like a loose connection

 

[Phil_G]

The Rayne site describes a consumer unit with separate RCD and MCBs, so if the RCD is tripping I'd humbly suggest its nothing to do with 8.3 or 30 amps, its earth leakage, ie an imbalance between whats going out on the live and whats coming back on the neutral. Hairdryers generally are not earthed so imbalance is unlikely, so I would suspect either damp/water spillage or a faulty RCD. RCDs do fail, the coils heat up and the plastic case and mechanism can become brittle. Also, any inductive consumer items (ie your fridge) have suppression capacitors to earth, these can become leaky and whilst this is unlikely to reach the 30mA trip current, several items in a similar state can add up to a near-trip current to earth, at which point almost any disturbance might trip it. I'd be looking for damp around the consumer unit & sockets, check the van earth, EHU earth etc.
/JMHO
Cheers
Phil

 

[Big Al]

Phil_G you may have hit the nail on the head there, I`m no electrician but had a very similar experience at home with the box tripping all the electrics and I narrowed it down to the Fridge. An Electrician did ` ramp up tests? etc and nothing actually showed up as faulty at the time but the fault mysteriously disappeared.