Mobile home power trips

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Sean Conway

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We have lived in a mobile for 4 months with no issues, TVs, guitar amps, microwaves, boilers, fridge, coffee machine, hover all on the same time if need them to be. We are running the entire home off one outlet from a house next to the mobile home with no issues since day one. A few days ago the power tripped at the fuse board in the mobile and the house a few seconds after a kettle was switched on. Ever since then the kettle will Trip the mobile even if it's the only thing plugged in. The kettle works perfectly the the house and the kettle from the house also tripps the mobile. The microwave also trips the power 1 in 3 times we try to use it. We can have on every other electrical appliance on the house without tripping but not a kettle. I took a hairdryer a tested it in every single socket and it worked perfectly. Barring getting a professional in is there anything that we could do ourselves to fix this. (I'm sure running an entire mobile off one socket isn't ideal but it worked perfectly for 4 straight months)

Id really appreciate any thoughts on this!

Thanks in advance

Mobile fuse board - https://ibb.co/mTr92dm

 
How old is the kettle? Is it heavily scaled inside? 
Sorry, I should have said. It's new. bought it when we moved into the mobile. It works perfectly when we tested it elsewhere and other kettles we tried in the mobile all trip the power but also work perfectly elsewhere

 
WHAT trips?  MCB or RCD?

When you say "mobile home" I take it you mean either a touring caravan or a static caravan?

Kettle, Microwave, coffe machine, "Boilers" (whatever that means) is a LOT almost certainly too much to power all from "1 outlet from a house next to the mobile home" unless it is something like a 32A commando socket.

My guess is the prolonged overload has damaged something and you are now best getting an electrician to find out what, and provide a better power arrangement for this mobile home.

 
As you have realised that's not an ideal setup. Presumably the "single outlet" in the house is a 13amp socket?  A kettle can be up to 3kW, which is the full capacity of a socket on its own. 

However, I assume it's the RCD which is tripping, (?)  In that case you almost certainly have an earth fault somewhere in the unit, which needs professional test gear to trace. 

Don't be surprised though if an electrician throws up his hands in horror at your arrangements and walks away.

 
We have lived in a mobile for 4 months with no issues, TVs, guitar amps, microwaves, boilers, fridge, coffee machine, hover all on the same time if need them to be. We are running the entire home off one outlet from a house next to the mobile home with no issues since day one.
I'm surprised things didn't go wrong much earlier, you have more than likely overloaded the outlet which is causing your problems.

Looking at what you have running I would suggest you employ and electrician to take a look at the existing set up you have, don't be surprised if they recommend and submain from the property to a distribution board in the mobile.

 
(I'm sure running an entire mobile off one socket isn't ideal but it worked perfectly for 4 straight months)

Id really appreciate any thoughts on this!


Unclear how you can claim it worked perfectly for 4 straight months??

(Unless you were doing full set of diagnostic tests on the cables every day to verify no cable deterioration).

Your logic is a bit like me saying I have been running my car on a set of tyres with less than 1.0mm tread on any of them..

Its worked perfectly for 6months..

But now one of the tyres is regularly losing pressure!

And the car doesn't handle so well in the wet!

Tyres deteriorate with use.. and so do cables!

Electricity always generates some heat as power passes through a circuit..

Repeated prolonged use of a particular circuit with excessive load on any part of that circuit will cause increased rate of deterioration of the circuit cables or accessories..

Just because something appeared to work..

it does not mean it is working in a safe manner, or that it was working perfectly OK..

I wouldn't assume any part of your wiring is safe or functional without getting it properly tested by someone with suitable test equipment.

 
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