Electricity fuse box tripping in 3 year old apartment

You must be over loading it.

Is something on a timer that comes on every evening or a combination of things ??

That's all it can be.

Hi Roland

Nothing on a timer, the only common denominator is the cooker, but it doesn't happen every time. 

When I reset the fuse box it doesn't happen again. It has me puzzled.

Hello,

You need a competent electrician to check each of the circuits that come from the box. he will need a proper meter to check this. It would seem that you have something that is just on the edge and only a proper meter will show it up. Not coming out till the 16th or I would come and do it for you.

Regards Steve

It is possible that your loading on the mains trip in the main box is below the usage when on full load with the cooker is used. We have the same problem in the winter when the electric heaters are on and the cooker is used. The solution is to consider upgrading the main RSD fusing rating, or turn off other sources of electricity whilst cooker is used. However if you update the rating using the supplier this will raise your standard charge.

Yes upgrading your supply from a 3.3 KW to a 5 KW supply will more than double your monthly standing charge.

It may be that the cooker is set at say 150 degrees one evening and the next evening 220 degrees ?!

Hi,

Weve suffered this problem in our 2 houses. It is that you're exceeding either the rating. As said; if you're only on 3.3KV you really need to up rate to 5.5kv. If you are already on 5.5, its probably just that the trip is rated too low. 

We had the same problem with our new house. It had a pool, 2 ovens, 4 ACs, etc, etc and regularly tripped, especially if the oven, iron, toaster was on, basically anything that draws alot of power. Then we than had a hot tube installed which just took it out immediately as it was plugged in, so couldn't be used.

The remedy was to up rate the main (one that trips) fuse from 25 amps to 40. We got an electrician to do it, but it is a 2 minute job, with a new breaker costing a couple of Euros. Something I could have done myself if it have know this was the issue. Its definitely worth doing first before going to the trouble of up rating the supply. As this is major pain. You need to have it done by a competent, qualified electrician. Which basically means they need to be Spanish. You need to get them to fill in a form and sign it off.

Check on your electric bill to see what size supply you have.

You may already have a 5 kw supply.

It is called Potencia contratada: 3,3 kW ( or 5 kw )

The standing charge on a 5 kw supply is over double that of a 3.3 kw supply.

So if you have a holiday home the economics of up grading your supply may not work.

Take all plugs  out switch of all electric switches.Switch on electric box replace plugs one at a time to see if it trips do same with switches hope this help

Sue9John is right. This is likely to be the first thing any electrician does. If you are on a lower PC than 5kW, then certainly upgrade. It is doubtful that a PC of 3kW will cope with demand in the winter. 

Also I would definitely advise against uprating any circuit to 40 amps....that's a potential 8800Watt !!!

The danger is that a small appliance may malfunction on the 40amp circuit but not trip it....a real fire risk

Bear in mind a modern oven on full will burn about 2400W and a 4 ring hotplate as much as 3000W if all rings full on!

You can easily work out the maximum power draw on each circuit 

Multiply Volts say 230 x amps (look on the rating plate of the appliance or in the instruction book/website) this gives Watts.

If the appliance shows it's maximum wattage you can work out the amps (current) by dividing Volts say 230 into Watts.