Your safety switch is doing its job
A safety switch (also called an RCD or RCBO) watches the current going out on a circuit and coming back. If some of it leaks away, through water, damaged insulation or a person, it cuts the power in a fraction of a second. Tripping in the rain means water is giving the electricity a path it should not have. The switch is protecting you. The fault is somewhere else.
Where the water usually gets in
- Outdoor power points. Cracked covers, missing seals or a weatherproof cover left open.
- Outdoor and garden lights. Old fittings with perished seals, and garden lights with joins buried in the soil.
- Cable joins and junction boxes under the house, in the roof or along fences, especially where they were not made for outdoor use.
- Damaged underground or surface cables to sheds, pumps and gates, often nicked by a spade or chewed over time.
- Appliances left outside: pool and pond pumps, gate motors, outdoor fridges, extension leads lying on wet ground.
- Corrosion. Close to the water, salt air eats into outdoor fittings faster than people expect, and corroded fittings let moisture in.
What you can safely check
- Note which switch tripped. Many boards label circuits. Knowing whether it is a power or lighting circuit narrows things down.
- Unplug everything outdoors on that circuit, including pumps, leads and anything in the garage.
- Try to reset the switch once. If it now stays on, plug things back in one at a time. The one that trips it is your culprit.
- If it trips with everything unplugged, the fault is in the fixed wiring or a fitting. Leave it off and call an electrician.
What not to do
- Do not keep resetting it. Repeated tripping is a fault, not a nuisance.
- Do not open up outdoor fittings, power points or the switchboard. That is licensed electrical work in Queensland, and wet fittings are dangerous.
- Do not touch anything near a switchboard that is wet, scorched or smells of burning. Call us, and if there is fire or smoke call 000.
- Never bypass or remove a safety switch to stop it tripping.
From our job sheets
Rain-related tripping is one of our most common call-outs on the Redcliffe Peninsula. Typical finds include water through a ceiling into a downlight, corroded outdoor power points and lights near the bay, a lighting circuit that started tripping after new ceiling fans were installed upstairs, and a single safety switch protecting several power circuits so one small fault shuts down half the house. That last one is often fixed by giving circuits their own protection during a switchboard upgrade.
What it costs with us
Fault finding is $149 inc GST for attendance and the first hour, then $37.50 per 15 minutes. Safety switch replacement is from $189 inc GST. We explain what we found and price the fix before we do it. See safety switch repairs and fault finding.