Bear wrote:
Brief description of problem.

Electric sockets only are tripping randomly - happened four times
since moving into our new property on 22/5/09. The first time was two
days after moving in, when barely anything was plugged in. The house
was rewired a couple of years ago and the previous occupants state
they had a similar problem, but it only happened to them a couple of
times in the 2 1/2 years they were there. The most recent trip was at
1am this morning. When it trips, only the electrical sockets in the
house are knocked out.

In locating the fault, I'm making some assumptions: chiefly that if
all of the sockets are turned off (ie. no device is consuming power),
its unlikely that anything could trip the RCB.

Not true.

Any device that DOES draw power anywhere near a neutralearth short
will trip one.

I have the same problem more or less isolated to one ring thats been
extended..anything on a section that one trips the house.

I must get down to fixing it..