Something weird happened today.

6pack

6pack

ex-Mod
One of the electric sockets in my house exploded. Felt like someone put a diwali bomb inside it. People in next building heard the sound and were asking each other what happened. :O

And the weird part is, it was not in use at that time. The socket next to it was in use. I was charging my phone on it. Charger was connected to a surge protector.
The house mcb tripped and also coincidence or not there's no power from that moment onwards yet.

I was looking at the burnt socket and saw that a spider web was built from between earth, live and neutral. Can a spider short the connection? The burnt area was too big and looked like the socket might have shorted internally. Weirdly, there are no crack marks on it or anything. Just the whole plastic is black.
 
Where can I get an rccb here? I'm thinking of replacing mccb with an rccb. Seems like rccb trips faster than mccb.

Isn't spider too small to connect between live and neutral? Also I read that spider web does not conduct electricity.

Edit: even the mcb next to my electric meter had tripped. Only my house mcb had tripped so I think problem must be in side my house. Probably surge protector or the 5v charger.
 
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Opened the surge protector.
Fk!!ng surge protector was burnt from inside. All wires blackened near that stupid led light circuit. Pos surge protection. Whole phase till transformer got tripped. Damn it.

Angry smiley became happy smiley in tapatalk.:S
 
See the pic. There was a metal varistor or something in it. Even the surge protector fuse had blown. Another weird thing is the first unused socket had burnt. The charger was plugged into 3rd socket.
Even I'm paranoid now. My comp is connected to a surge protector with those led lights. It doesn't have any metal varistor or any other thing in it. Thinking of cutting of the led and directly connecting line from fuse to first socket.
 

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6pack said:
I was looking at the burnt socket and saw that a spider web was built from between earth, live and neutral. Can a spider short the connection? The burnt area was too big and looked like the socket might have shorted internally. Weirdly, there are no crack marks on it or anything. Just the whole plastic is black.
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can we see a photo of the burnt socket that exploded.
 
Pic of burnt socket.

I think my apc ups is gone bad. Its giving out 70 volts on ground pin if its switched on. If its off voltage is zero. I could even see voltage on other ground socket in house if ups was switched on. Damn. Seems like I'll have to get new ups now.:(
Horrible day today.
 

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such incidents are quite common... the problem is that your house is not wired properly. generally, only the faulty line/socket/board trips and rest of the house continues to receive electricity.

you should get your wiring checked out by some qualified electrician. i've fixed most of the wiring issues in my house. now, only the MCB of affected room/socket trips and it helps in pinpointing the issue.

ideally, your house should have individual MCBs for the following for each room:
1) fans and lights (overhead fixtures)
2) 6~10amp sockets
3) 16+ amp sockets
 
My electrician found the issue. It was due to a corroded earthing wire. The wire had corroded due to the elements and age and had stiffened in few places. Replaced around 5 meters of the wire and everything's fine now.

After changing the wire, the electrician said my fan was running slow and asked me to change the fan's capacitor. Does capacitor have any relationship to the fans speed?
 
6pack said:
My electrician found the issue. It was due to a corroded earthing wire. The wire had corroded due to the elements and age and had stiffened in few places. Replaced around 5 meters of the wire and everything's fine now.

After changing the wire, the electrician said my fan was running slow and asked me to change the fan's capacitor. Does capacitor have any relationship to the fans speed?
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Yes. Do you also have problem with starting of the fan motor?
 
No. It starts properly but even at Max speed of regulator it seems to run slow. That fan is running slower than the fan in my bedroom at full speed and both have the same make of electronic regulator.
Edit: the fan heats up much more than normal though. It becomes really hot.
 
6pack said:
No. It starts properly but even at Max speed of regulator it seems to run slow. That fan is running slower than the fan in my bedroom at full speed and both have the same make of electronic regulator.
Edit: the fan heats up much more than normal though. It becomes really hot.
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Another hint that the capacitor needs to be replaced.
 
Ah. Any brand of capacitor and what rating to buy? I found an old capacitor I had which was lying around. It had 2005 mfg date and 2.5 micro farad on it. Brand was Epcos I think.
 
You mean potentiometer of fan.
Might be off topic
Recently one of my rooms rider got off.I personally changed it and it was so old that shop person said its almost an era such riders have stopped manufacturing.
He gave me some local brand for 100 buks.The difference i saw was the hertz rating.My older one was at max 300hz whereas this new one was 700mhz speed.
 
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