The earth leakage circuit breaker was tripping at different times of the day, sometimes between 4 and 5 pm and other times between 2 and 3 pm.
I tried to unplug all the common appliances such as the toaster, kettle and microwave but the circuit breaker was still tripping.
I also tested all power sockets with a power point tester and all sockets showed correct wiring.
The earth leakage trips seemed to be due to accumulated currents or by devices with low insulation resistance so I purchased a Digital Insulation Tester from Altronics Q 1244 : https://www.altronics.com.au/p/q1244-auto-ranging-digital-insulation-tester-1000v/
BE WARNED HIGH VOLTAGE TESTER
I started testing certain devices in an area that I was sure causing the fault as I had turned off all power points in that area for 2 weeks and had no circuit breaker trips.
I found low resistance on a touch screen monitor laptop type power supply, the supply had kinks in the lead which was threaded through the plastic molding of the touch screen.
The tester showed measurements as low as 500 Meg and for tests over 500v all readings should be over 1 Meg ohm.
I tried testing another IEC power lead and that was over 1 Meg then another IEC lead and that was also 1 Meg, then I tried the faulty lead again and it was 500 Meg, so the fault was with the lead and not the power supply, it wasn't enough to cause the circuit breaker to trip but I replaced it anyway.
The times seem to be consistently between 4 - 6am.
Faulty was caused by the Fridge Heating element.
2 comments:
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