Lights tripping safety switch

[Janus]

Please excuse me I am not very familiar with these things, but I thought this seemed like the best place to ask my question.

I live in an older house that has safety switches (one for power, one for lights etc...). It seems that it started recently ( ~ 1 month) that whenever it would rain heavily, the safety switch for the lights would trip. It took me a little while to work out what seemed to be causing it, because I was never using any of the lights at the time. Then of course I'd flip the switch back on and everything would be fine until it rained heavily again.

Tonight when I turned the switch back on and while I was using a light in the house, the switch tripped again. So I went to turn it back on and I saw a spark and it flipped back off immediately.

So my question is, is it safe for me to stay here while I organize an electrician to come over and check it out (with the safety switch left off) or should I call a 24 hour emergency number?

Thank you for reading :)

[applied]

its fine the breakers are designed to ark internally when they brake current.
try reset the beaker a few more times if it wont stay on turn off all the circuits wether by removing all the fuses or just switching. then reset the safety switch.
then turn all the breakers on one at a time which ever one trips the safety switch leave it off but turn all the others on and reset till the electrician can come tomorrow.
which state are you in?

[president_ltd]

So I went to turn it back on and I saw a spark and it flipped back off immediately.

was this 'spark' (arcing) from the RCD (trip switch / circuit breaker) when you attempted to flip it back on?

did it trip again? or stay 'on' but sparked / arc'd there and then?

if so then its likely that you've never seen or noticed it before.

i don't know that anyone here will say "sure its safe" for liability concerns - and i'm not going to either.
but if you want to be scientific about it, you could pick your other safety switch for power points, turn that off and when you turn it back on probably also observe it spark / arc as the contact is closed (turned on).

should you continue to use the lights in your house?
personally i would not. the RCD is clearly tripping for a reason and if you've correlated it to being "when it rains" then i think its very probable you have an exposed wire somewhere that is grounded to earth.
many electrical fires are started by current leaking to earth.

suggest you light the candles tonight and have a sparkie around tomorrow!
if there is water leaking somewhere it should not, it shouldn't be hard for them to find. they should start with any exposed outside lights or garden lights if they are on your lighting circuit.

[Janus]

was this 'spark' (arcing) from the RCD (trip switch / circuit breaker) when you attempted to flip it back on?

did it trip again? or stay 'on' but sparked / arc'd there and then?

Yes. I flipped it back on and it sparked and turned off straight away. It never did that before.



i don't know that anyone here will say "sure its safe" for liability concerns - and i'm not going to either.

Absolutely I understand that, just wanted to give as much info as I could, even though I only wanted to know if this is considered to be an emergency situation.




suggest you light the candles tonight and have a sparkie around tomorrow!


Thanks very much guys! I am not using the lighs tonight and I'll call an electrician tomorrow. Thanks so much for your quick replies!

I'm in Victoria btw.

[applied]

is anything else off?
in breakdown situations like yours we usually try to keep at-least the essential appliances running.
you should be able to turn everything except the lights on by turning off that breaker only and this will help narrow down the problem eg: if it goes off with the light circuit off its something else causing it.

Sometimes rarely it is an air conditioner unit or fridge that condenses up on cold wet nights.

[Janus]

is anything else off?


It's only the lights. Everything else is working perfectly.

[R3N0-S]

If it's only tripping when it is raining heavily then I would go on the roof if you are competent enough and see when if there are any moisture getting in the roof or too any light fitting outdoor while it is raining heavily

Do this the next day during daylight and make sure you turn your main switch off just in case there is any leakage up there

[Bruiser]

The fact that your RCD is tripping should make you feel a bit safer - that's its job, and it's doing it. A bit of a spark in a switch or circuit breaker is nothing to worry about, you'll almost always see it through the casing in dark surrounds.

Anything you can tell the sparky will save you $$$. For example, if you turn all the lights off, then systematically turn them on one by on, you may be able to determine the faulty circuit. And save paying the sparky to do the same thing.