earthleak problems

Post by **Willem4ever** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:54 pm

Guys, any ideas on the subject. I just had for no apparent reason three times a power outage, all three times caused by my earthleak switch (aardlek schakelaar) any ideas how to find the guilty person. I have de-activated my backyard and vlonder lights. Maybe this has todo with the heavy rain and too much moist in my external lights ....

Post by **Snelvuur** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:07 am

Well i would just turn off every equipment on the particular part.. then turn it on 1 by 1.. unless it only happens after a certain amount of time. Then it could be anything (like rats eating through cable for instance)

Post by **Willem4ever** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:30 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by snelvuur
 Well i would just turn off every equipment on the particular part.. then turn it on 1 by 1.. unless it only happens after a certain amount of time. Then it could be anything (like rats eating through cable for instance)
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">The problem is that it happens sometimes, like nothing for months, then all of sudden two times in a week, and nothing again. Tonight it was very bad, three within one hour, which must be a serious problem. I'm up 53 minutes now, let's see if it stays. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Post by **Snelvuur** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:34 am

Just get one of those normal outlets with a fuse. Place that device in between the things you think that might pose a problem. If you still get an outage, switch it to the next suspect etc etc. Might not be the quickest, but its an idea you can try. (Assuming, you have a in between device with a fuse. Some more expensive "haspels" have them)

Post by **Willem4ever** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 10:03 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by snelvuur
 Just get one of those normal outlets with a fuse. Place that device in between the things you think that might pose a problem. If you still get an outage, switch it to the next suspect etc etc. Might not be the quickest, but its an idea you can try. (Assuming, you have a in between device with a fuse. Some more expensive "haspels" have them)
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">It's not the fuse, it is the earthleak (aardlek schakelaar) when it disconnects it takes a whole group of fuses with it. While writing I have been up since last night, so it must the lights in either the backyard or the vlonder.

Post by **John Downe** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:48 am

Hi, have you had a lot of rain lately - maybe some "water-leakage" triggering your "earth-leakage"?

I recently tried a new earth-leakage cut-out which was just too sensitive to have the whole house on - and things like the dish-washer tripped it.
I understand that the earth leakage trip effect is cumulative so perhaps it only trips when you have a certain combination of electrical devices on at the same time - possibly combined with damp or even rat interference as suggested elsewhere - which would make it very difficult to isolate the problem.

Have you see the Gewiss made Auto-Reset earth leakage switch which will cut-out out - then automatically check the circuit and if OK reste itself after 1 minute - great to protect freezer contents etc when you are away from the house. I have one of these as well and it works well.

Good luck!

John Downe

Post by **Willem4ever** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:15 pm

Yes we experienced some unusual rain lately. I used a simple ohm meter to measure the resistance between phase/earth and null/earth both have a slowly increasing resistance to earth. Last measurement was ~ 8 kOhm which equals to 27.5 mA current flowing to earth. I know there is a lot of other factors, but resistance between phase/earth /null/earth should very high. A quick check also learned that the cables fell of from the bottom of de vlonder (what is the English word?) The vlonder hangs over the water, and there are three spotlights at the very end of the vlonder. Coming weekend I will further check and investigate to see if it is repairable (cables were laid during construction, now very hard or impossible to reach).

For now it is disconnected .... to be continued ....

PS: Vlonder is a plank bridge according to webster, does that make any sense John?

Post by **John Downe** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 11:02 am

Vlonder? Not sure - is this over a swimming pool (in which case "diving board") or a garden pond / stream (just "wooden bridge" by the sound of it in this case) Sorry I don't have any Dutch to base this on.....
John

Post by **Willem4ever** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:22 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by John Downe
 Vlonder? Not sure - is this over a swimming pool (in which case "diving board") or a garden pond / stream (just "wooden bridge" by the sound of it in this case) Sorry I don't have any Dutch to base this on.....
John
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

What i mean is a decking. In this particular case the decking is hanging partly over a very small canal. In some cases with very heavy rain the waterlevel raised so much the decking sub-merged in the canal. Well I guess that is the beauty of living in the "Netherlands"