Electric gremlins - in the house

[Feasty]

We've lived in our house for the past 19 years, with no electrical problems. A year last September we had a new kitchen fitted, a stud wall removed, new lights, couple of new sockets etc.

Ever since then, whenever we have heavy rain 1 spur on our fuse box trips out. Unfortunately whoever fitted the fuse box before we lived here didn't do a great job as this spur has all the sockets in the house (upstairs and down) apart from 1 set in the dining room, and a set of ceiling lights in the kitchen.
Initially the fridge and freezer were also on this spur, but the electrician who did all the fitting added an additional spur to separate them so now whenever we get heavy rain and it trips, at least we don't lose the food too.

It's now been over a year, with multiple visits by the same electrician to try and fix this. But he still hasn't been able to. We do have a damp issue on one outside wall of the dining room, and thought it might be the sockets on that wall. But they've now been taken out of the circuit, and it still happens.

I'm getting really fed up of this now, and whilst the electrician is a really nice bloke and doesn't charge us for his visits, he also takes weeks to fit us in between his other work.
I'm thinking the kitchen fitters have got us over a barrel, since it's been so long and I can't say for definite it's caused by them - only that it's happened since they did the fitting. So we can't ask for anything more than the electrician is already doing.

Any ideas/advice on a way forwards?
I would do some electrical digging myself as I have experience of working on electrics, just nothing official. But I gather testing equipment for this sort of thing is very expensive.
____________________
Previous: Aprilia Habana Retro 50cc (beauty), Yamaha SR125 (fell apart), Honda XR125 (nippy little commuter), Honda SLR650 (Geewhizz), Yamaha Diversion 900S (Smoooooth) written off courtesy of a stupid escaped horse.
(7 year gap), BMW F650 (Relaxing ride). Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 (Big and bold). Yamaha FZS600 (got me in trouble too quick!).
Current: Yamaha TDM 900 (Comfy, light but big, power when needed).

[Freddyfruitba...]

[Ste]

You can ask for more than the electrician is already doing because they're not doing anything useful.

Go to a different electrician and pay them to fix it which will probably involve rewiring so things are on different spurs?

Presumably you've already taken apart and checked wiring in the new lights, sockets and anything else electrical that was done at the same as the kitchen was fitted?

[Robby]

It doesn't take very much water in a switch, fitting or socket to cause a trip when that thing is turned on.

So my fault finding would be to turn off/disconnect everything on that ring, and go through 1 by 1 turning things on with some load attached. When you find the offending item, open it up and look for water. Don't get electrocuted in the process, turn it off at the consumer unit first.

My best guess is that water is getting through into a socket when you get a lot of rain. If you have a damp wall, find out why and fix it. If you're lucky it's just something silly like an overflowing gutter.

[A100man]

I guess by 'spur' you mean a ring circuit for the sockets.

This is a bit confusing because only aan old installation would have combined upstairs and downstairs sockets.

Also having lights in the same circuits is a big no-no as they are usually wired with lower capacity cable.

OTH tripping when wet signifies you have RCDs in place which are (relativley) modern..

Post a pic of your 'fuse-box' - might be useful.
____________________
Now: A100, GT250A, XJ598, FZ750

Then: Fizz, RS200, KL250, XJ550, Laverda Alpina, XJ600, FZS600

[doggone]

It could just be condensation in a place that gets cold then warmer humid air reaches it periodically.
I think you'd notice if it was literally raining in enough to get in a socket or something, though if rain was getting into a wall due to gutter backing up or bad tile/slate over wall it might not actually penetrate into house.

[A100man]

I believe that adding new sockets /lights is a 'notifiable change' which means it should have been done by a Bldg regs part P approved electrician and also tested with a certificate issued.

I suspect though that kitchen fitters did the work and you don't have any certificate and casue for redress.

Of course the work could be sound and something else entirely is causing the trip - rodent damage or water ingress (as has been suggested) etc..
____________________
Now: A100, GT250A, XJ598, FZ750

Then: Fizz, RS200, KL250, XJ550, Laverda Alpina, XJ600, FZS600

[Feasty]

It's definitely when something gets damp, it only ever happens during and just after heavy rain. once the rain has stopped and about 12-24hrs has passed the fuse stays on and doesn't trip till the next time.
The roof is all good, I've been in the loft many times and it's completely watertight.
The first time this happened the new kitchen (fused) light switch was full of plaster, once cleaned it didn't happen again for a while so we thought it was that... then it rained heavily and it went off again!

One time during heavy rain and whilst the fuse kept tripping I unplugged EVERYTHING in the house (took some doing!), it still kept tripping.

Regarding the wiring - we had some work done a few years ago now to alter a kitchen wall and fit 2 ceiling spot lights in the kitchen. The builders upgraded the fuse box so I'm assuming it was them who wired it up as it is now, (I didn't realise at the time) they added the ceiling lights to the main socket ring feeding most of the house sockets.
The kitchen fitters last year then added another 4 ceiling lights to that existing ring, not realising it was also connected to the same spur as all the sockets.

It's never one single thing that causes the problem eh!
____________________
Previous: Aprilia Habana Retro 50cc (beauty), Yamaha SR125 (fell apart), Honda XR125 (nippy little commuter), Honda SLR650 (Geewhizz), Yamaha Diversion 900S (Smoooooth) written off courtesy of a stupid escaped horse.
(7 year gap), BMW F650 (Relaxing ride). Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 (Big and bold). Yamaha FZS600 (got me in trouble too quick!).
Current: Yamaha TDM 900 (Comfy, light but big, power when needed).

[Easy-X]

Sounds like your wiring's a right mess. Standard layout would be: downstairs ring (sockets), upstairs ring (sockets), downstairs lighting, upstairs lighting, sometimes a separate ring for kitchen sockets but certainly separate spurs for cooker, fridge/freezer.

If you can afford the work it'd be well worth getting your wiring put right. Maybe the "water in the circuits" will be revealed in the transition but it'd be a heck of a lot easier to diagnose if not.
____________________
Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[Raffles]

[WD Forte]

[Feasty]

Ah gotcha, I'm not using the right terminology - I mean RCD, it's the RCD that trips. And the sockets upstairs and down are all on the same ring as the new ceiling lights - but not the rest of the ceiling lights, also a couple of sockets are on a different ring on a different RCD.

The electrician has since visited as the RCD tripped again during last weekends storms. He's been able to separate the new ceiling lights onto the same ring as the 2 other sockets, so now on their own RCD. The rest of the upstairs/downstairs sockets are now also on their own RCD.
Watching this space...
____________________
Previous: Aprilia Habana Retro 50cc (beauty), Yamaha SR125 (fell apart), Honda XR125 (nippy little commuter), Honda SLR650 (Geewhizz), Yamaha Diversion 900S (Smoooooth) written off courtesy of a stupid escaped horse.
(7 year gap), BMW F650 (Relaxing ride). Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 (Big and bold). Yamaha FZS600 (got me in trouble too quick!).
Current: Yamaha TDM 900 (Comfy, light but big, power when needed).

[Islander]

It could be leakage current causing it and that's tricky to detect unless you have a clamp meter with a very low current range on it.

What's your earthing system? Is there a sticker on the incomer that says PME? Is there a clamp around the outside of the sheath of the incomer with green or green and yellow insulated wire going to the consumer unit or another obvious earthing terminal?