Customer Problem with Power Circuit Tripping
Hi, this is John Dale from GlobileNet. Just covering another small story in our contracting works. Had a client called David call me. He had some ongoing problems with the power circuit tripping every now and then, and he wanted me to go and have a look.
Providing a Verbal Quote and Call Fee Explanation
So I gave him actually a verbal quote becausem, typically, you’re going to resolve those problems within an hour. Our standard call fee, which is in that case $250, would have covered time-wise what would typically be the case. I explained that to him, which he was quite happy to do.
Investigating the Laundry Power Points
On visiting, his problem area seemed to be the laundry. So we’d gone through and taken off power points on the laundry walls. Nothing seemed to be a problem there, but one of those power points did look a bit suspect. So I just changed the power point while I was there and doing some work.
Circuit Breaker Testing and Intermittent Faults
The circuit breaker was tripping properly. We have a special test instrument to verify the safety circuit breaker is tripping properly because sometimes they just don’t work after a little while. And so his problem really was that it was intermittent. And of course, you’d be in the middle of a washing cycle and later on you’d find out the power had gone. So again, his wife, of course, also had a problem because not only did it knock out the laundry, but it was knocking out some other power points on the same circuit.
Considering Circuit Breaker Failure as a Cause
Now, actually, David had suggested that he thought it might be a circuit breaker, and most of the time, that is not the case. I mean, nearly, I think 1 out of 100 would probably actually be the circuit breaker a problem. However, in this case, when I did a load test on the circuit breaker, when we put all the equipment on and run it for a little while just to see if it’s exceeding the 20 amp current constraints of the installed circuit breaker. We can usually say if it’s protecting the house or it’s just tripping off unfavorably when it shouldn’t.
Confirming RCBO Failure and Replacement
In this case, it just so happens that it tripped it less than the rated current. So it did indicate an RCBO (Residual Current Breaker with Overcurrent protection) or circuit breaker failure, and that was changed. I’d put in place a couple of things with the client just to walk them through issues and how to solve them when they had circuit breaker problems in the future.
Satisfied Customer and Positive Review
He was very happy with that advice. He was happy with the solution. He left me a very nice review. Thank you very much, David. If you’d like to give us a call, look up GlobileNet in your local area. Thank you.
