Intermittent Power Cuts

[rogerab]

Hi, hope someone can help please...
I have had power cuts at home for the last 3 days. Each has been around lunchtime and lasted for about 2 hours.

My neighbours aren't affected and we haven't had any rewiring done recently or anything like that.

I have a call open with my energy supplier but just wondering if anybody thinks it may be something in my property that's causing the problem, or something external.

Many Thanks.

[gingejbee]

Ah, there's a question- could be either, i suppose.
Some years ago, we were having supply failure (and near neighbours weren't).....and it WAS outside under the pavement about 50 metres away.
Put right by suppliers and no trouble since. Touching wood....

[rogerab]

Thanks for that. Energy supplier has been out and thinks it's a problem with the fuse box.
That is in the garage which has an electric door and the power is out

[carrust]

Do you have to reset anything to get the power back on?

[rogerab]

No it comes back on automatically. Trip switch doesn't trip or anything.

[carrust]

That's a strange one roger, I'll watch this thread with interest.
Is it an old style fuse box with no trip switches?
Are you on a seperate feed to your neighbours?

[rogerab]

Whole house was rewired only 3 years ago and we had a bit of rewiring done a few months ago.
Not sure whether we are on a separate feed to our neighbours.

Will keep you posted!

[The Builder]

My first thought would always be a simple bad connection in the Consumer Unit. But, because of the "regularity" of the fault, that looks extremely unlikely. With a loose connection, it should happen at any time. Also, the resultant arcing is likely to cause a circuit breaker to open (not the RCD).

Again, because of the regular times, it suggests a timeclock operating when it shouldn't. Is it a modern digital meter, or an old-type mechanical one?

[carrust]

Is one of your neighbours growing cannabis? They could be nicking your electricity.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

If all the switchgear is ok then there is likely to be a contractor working on one of the three phases on your supply ring.You could be the only one on the affected phase or there may be others unknown to you.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

PS...the energy supplier will not know of maintenance as its carried out by a separate company........and they never communicate!

[rogerab]

Thanks to everyone for their comments so far...

A quick update - got home last night and no power. In the garage where all the trip switches are, turned the big red one at the end off and on again and the power came back. So far today it's been fine.

My only theory is related to the cooker as that's normally in use about lunchtime so was wondering whether a dodgy element or something was causing it.

Have had an electrician out this morning and they can't find anything yet.

[The Builder]

Roger, is your "big red switch" just a switch, or is it a 30 milliamp RCD (trip)?

[rogerab]

The Builder, I'm not sure
It says "Square D Switch Disconnector 100SW 100A"

[The Builder]

Sounds like it's an ordinary mainswitch or isolator. I guess it's possible that the contacts have become faulty. Switching on and off would kind of "reset" them again.

Other than that, it could be as His Brightness has suggested... work going on somewhere.

I had something similar recently, but that was an RCD that kept tripping. The usual earth leakage tests revealed no problem. It turned out to be a neutral fault in the supply. It does happen.