Totally stumped. Night Storage Heater tripping out MCB, but ok on daytime circuit.

[Steve Poulton]

Please help. I have a basic understanding of electirics, but 5 Electricians are stumped and I don't know where to go next. My mother in law heats her house by 4 Night Storage Heaters, all of which are wired to a Economy 7 supply/fuse board, with no RCD just MCB. The largest of the Night Storage Heaters began to fail and trip the MCD. To cut a long story short, she ended up having a new one fitted. Unfortunately this new one also now trips the MCB. The electricians have tried swapping the various supplies to the various heaters around in the E7 fuse board and the same heater is tripping the different MCB. It would be an obvious thing to consider that there is a fault on the circuit between the board and the night storage heater. However, they have now wired it into the day time board and it is not tripping. Has anyone got any ideas as we need to get it wired back into the E7 circuit??

 

[KEV 1 N]

im thinking the way they have connected the booster+storage heaters into the 24hour supply and it now works

i dont think they have taken the circuit from the e7 board and tried it on the 24h supply

rather they have taken the 24hour supply and put the storage heaters on that circuit outlet

thats all that i can gather/make sense of

The impression I got was that they swapped things at the DBs. The OP doesn’t mention anything about boosters, not all E7 installations have that feature.

 

[elsparko]

The impression I got was that they swapped things at the DBs. The OP doesn’t mention anything about boosters, not all E7 installations have that feature.

most of the bigger heaters ive worked on had a booster feature

 

[Toneyz]

What is the modal number and KW rating of this storage heater and how is the circuit connected to the 24Hr consumer unit?You state that the E7 consumer unit has 15A MCB's what is the rating of the 24Hr MCB it was put on?

 

[lurch]

any idea what the heater is pulling (amps)

 

[elsparko]

either way, something is wrong and should have been figured out on the first visit before changing the heater then backtracing from there

im betting your old storage heater has made its way to the skip, or been crushed beyond repair in the back of a van

the OP is too unclear to make sense of, you need a site visit by a competent sparky

 

[elsparko]

any idea what the heater is pulling (amps)

a new heater has been installed and also trips, but it only trips the E7, it is unclear if the link has been made at DB or at 24h/e7 outlet beside heater

the only way to truely diagnose is to be on site

 

[buzzlightyear]

The OP has suggested that this storage heater ijn particular trips any of the E7 MCB's .............. so if its not the MCB, or the heater it has to be the cable and / or connections between the 2!

that's in possible
if theirs a fault on any heaters it would only knock out that mcb .

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Assuming all testing has been carried out effectively and shows no issues. Based on the info the OP has given I would suggest running a temporary new supply cable from the off peak board mcb to the new storage heater and see if it still trips. If it does it must be the heater, if it doesn't it must be the circuit cable.

 

[elsparko]

that's in possible
if theirs a fault on any heaters it would only knock out that mcb .

yes but it sounds like they have connected the faulty circuit into all the other mcbs and has tripped those

 

[elsparko]

Assuming all testing has been carried out effectively and shows no issues. Based on the info the OP has given I would suggest running a temporary new supply cable from the off peak board mcb to the new storage heater and see if it still trips. If it does it must be the heater, if it doesn't it must be the circuit cable.

a permanent temporary?

 

[ipf]

We all know that the fault is probably quite simple, when found, at least. Until visiting site and having personal experience of the situation, I find some of the confident posts a little presumptuous. I don't tend to criticize other tradesmen without that personal involvement. Sorry if it upsets anyone but let's not presume we're talking about simple cockups (even if we are).

 

[Deleted member 9648]

a permanent temporary?

no a temporary temporary....it'll prove a point. Just chuck a bit of T/E round for a night or two and disconnect the circuit cable feeding the offending heater

 

[elsparko]

We all know that the fault is probably quite simple, when found, at least. Until visiting site and having personal experience of the situation, I find some of the confident posts a little presumptuous. I don't tend to criticize other tradesmen without that personal involvement. Sorry if it upsets anyone but let's not presume we're talking about simple cockups (even if we are).

the replacing of the heater was a bit cart before the horse

it should not take 5 visits to be in the same/worse situation than you started with

 

[buzzlightyear]

no a temporary temporary....it'll prove a point. Just chuck a bit of T/E round for a night or two and disconnect the circuit cable feeding the offending heater

what a good idea Stanley

 

[Deleted member 9648]

We all know that the fault is probably quite simple, when found, at least. Until visiting site and having personal experience of the situation, I find some of the confident posts a little presumptuous. I don't tend to criticize other tradesmen without that personal involvement. Sorry if it upsets anyone but let's not presume we're talking about simple cockups (even if we are).

Indeed....I spent 8 hours over 3 visits last week to trace what turned out to be an intermittent lighting fault.

 

[KEV 1 N]

what a good idea Stanley

Maybe these were two of the five electricians?

 

[telectrix]

Indeed....I spent 8 hours over 3 visits last week to trace what turned out to be an intermittent lighting fault.

is an intermittent lighting fault one that occurs only when switched on but fine if left off. ?

 

[ipf]

the replacing of the heater was a bit cart before the horse

it should not take 5 visits to be in the same/worse situation than you started with

As regards the heater, maybe.....but how do you know it's state, or whether previous tests were or were not carried out.
Five visits seems excessive but how do we know what they involved or how long they took?

 

[elsparko]

no a temporary temporary....it'll prove a point. Just chuck a bit of T/E round for a night or two and disconnect the circuit cable feeding the offending heater

is an intermittent lighting fault one that occurs only when switched on but fine if left off. ?

a farmer i know supplied one of his sheds with steel fence wire, over about a kilometer nailed directly to the top of fence posts

basically a 230v electric fence, cant remember what sort of animal was unfortunate enough to land on said fence but it blew the main fuse

 

[KEV 1 N]

a farmer i know supplied one of his sheds with steel fence wire, over about a kilometer nailed directly to the top of fence posts

basically a 230v electric fence, cant remember what sort of animal was unfortunate enough to land on said fence but it blew the main fuse

Would have been fine if the fence posts were taller!