I have had a problem over several months in relation to an electric oven. Could anyone advise? Late last year my electrics became faulty and an emergency electrician came and identified a fault on a ring main in the kitchen of my house. Rather than pull up floorboards, he chose to locate the problem to between two plug sockets and then replace the wire between them by running it along the skirting board and through the wall next to the second plug socket. I don't know, therefore, what caused this initial problem. The electrician speculated that it may have been caused by mice. After replacing the cable, he found the electric oven was on its own spur and he had mistakenly cut it out of the ring he had created, so he redid some of the work and incorporated into the ring main. Since then, I have had problems with the oven that seem to be caused by overloading. Initially the oven would cut out after being used for a spell, but no electrics would trip. Within a month or two, the oven started to trip out the kitchen mcb after being on for a spell. After another few months, during which I was careful not to use the oven at too high a temperature, it began to trip the whole house however low a temperature it was used on. Why has the problem got progressively worse, do you think? Could the RCD have become too sensitive or is that not technically possible? Since the RCD trips, I don't know whether the problem is caused by over-current or an earth fault. Is there any way of knowing? What is the best thing to do from here? One electrician I asked said I should simply remove the RCD but I am worried that this might be dangerous. Should the oven be on its own ring main? At the moment it is not even hardwired into the existing ring main, but just plugs into a normal plug socket. Any suggestions?
Chris