We recently went to Cornwall and whilst there, our electric kept tripping from the electric bollard, I thought that this was due to possible overloading of ampage, as we had all appliances on. We went to our seasonal storage site at the weekend and the electric was tripping all the time, even when there was nothing on, only the sockets. We then heard a 'pop' sound and there was a burning smell coming from the fuse box! I know that I have to get an electrician in to sort this out, but I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem before or if anyone has any idea as to what could be the problem? Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks in advance.
with your van unplugged, take the cover off the consumer unit (fusebox) and look for signs of overheating, discolored wires etc, please do not use this unitl it has been looked at.
its quite common, the conductors heat up in heavy use expanding a bit, this combined with caravans being moved around alot works the main connections loose, as they become loose, the connection gets worse causing a high resistance connection, which gets even warmer until the symptoms you describe.
if its not too bad the connections will simply need re-making, ie stripping back to where there is no heat damage to the cables and reconnecting.
slightly worse the MCBs and internal connection blocks my need attention, worst case the whole conumer unit may need changing, its impossible to know which without seeing it.
post some pics of it opened up and close ups of any obvious damage and there are a few sparks on here who will be able to advise, Id offer to have a look, but Im a bit far away...
I agree with Tim, unplug fron the mains and have a look. Signs of overheating include discolouration or melting of the plastic parts of the circuit breakers, discolouration of the connectors which could be anything from blueing right through to blackening. Other signs are the melting back of cable insulation and discolouration of the copper conductor. As Tim says, don't use the van until it's been checked, the worst case is that it could catch fire.
I went over to the caravan today and checked the fuse box with someone who knew a little about electrics, there was no damage to the circuit breakers, switches or the wiring entering the circuit breakers or to the back of the fuse box, but, you could smell that something had burnt out. The gentleman that I was with said, it could be an inverter - I have no idea what one is?! We shall be getting an electrician to look at it and certainly will not use the van until it is fixed.
P.S. I did notice that an extra socket had been added to the caravan, I don't know if this could be a contributer to the problem as we use it all most all the time when we are in the van.
An invertor in this case would probably be a fluorescent light with a 12v D.C. supply. The invertor would boost the voltage enough for the tube to "strike".
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Topic: Burning smell from fuse box!
