Fuse Board Keeps Tripping?

Does this sound familiar?

• A breaker (RCD/MCB) that trips repeatedly
• Power cutting out when you use a certain appliance
• A circuit that won't reset at all
• Burning smell or warmth around the board
• Lights flickering before a trip

What's usually going on

• A faulty appliance leaking current
• A damaged cable or overloaded circuit
• Water ingress affecting a circuit
• A failing RCD or worn consumer unit

A tripping board is a safety device doing its job — the trick is finding what's actually at fault. We test circuit by circuit to isolate the cause, whether it's an appliance, a cable, damp, or the board itself, and give you a set price to put it right.

If the consumer unit is old or unsafe, we'll explain why an upgrade is worth it rather than pushing one you don't need.

Before you call: what you can safely do at the board

First check it is only you. If the landing lights or the neighbours are out too, or nothing on your board has tripped at all, the problem is upstream of your flat — a supply matter for the network operator, or the freeholder's or managing agent's if the communal intake or riser has failed. Our guide to a power cut in one flat covers that case.

Then photograph the board before you touch anything. It records which device operated, and that information disappears the moment you reset it. One small breaker off points to a fault on that one circuit; a wider RCD switch off means current is leaking to earth somewhere in the group it protects; the main switch off means everything is dead.

1. Unplug everything on the affected circuit — unplug, don't just switch off at the socket.
2. Reset the device: push it fully off first, then on. Some won't reset any other way, which is why boards get wrongly written off as broken.
3. Plug back in one at a time, a minute apart. When it trips again, you have found the appliance — and the fix may be a new kettle rather than an electrician.
4. If it won't reset with everything unplugged, stop. The fault is in the fixed wiring, and that needs proper fault finding.

Never take the cover off the board. Stop and call straight away if there is a smell of burning, the board or a socket is warm or scorched, you can hear buzzing or crackling, anyone has felt a shock or a tingle, or water is anywhere near the electrics — see water near electrics and don't switch things on to test them.

Why it trips at night with nothing on

Usually something is running that you don't think of as running: an immersion heater or heating on a timer, a fridge or freezer cycling, a dehumidifier. If it trips at the same time every night, look at what is on a timer. The other common cause is cumulative earth leakage — every appliance leaks a tiny amount by design, and enough of them on one RCD can sit just over its threshold on a damp day. Nothing is faulty; the circuits are simply grouped badly, and spreading them across more protection is the fix. In older conversions and mansion blocks around W2, W9 and NW8, ageing insulation that leaks when warm can also make a flat trip only once the heating goes on.

Tell us which device tripped, what was running, whether it happens at a set time and what you have already unplugged — that alone can halve the visit.

Set prices

Set prices shown are typical starting points. You'll always get a fixed quote before any work begins — no hourly surprises.

Why call fixmyproperty.ai

Experienced trades, transparent set prices and a fixed quote before we start — never an open-ended hourly bill. We cover Mayfair, Marylebone, St John's Wood, Bayswater and Paddington, and we understand mansion blocks, porters and managing agents.

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