To be fed up with my electric tripping when I use certain sockets in the house?

[saltire]

I am sick of it, every time I iron, vacum, plug in any other electrical thing other than those already plugged in then the electrics trip. 6 times in the past 30 minutes, all becasue I have the Iron plugged into an extension cable!

Something doesn't sound right there - i'd get someone to have a look at it

are you plugging them all into the same extension ( multiple sockets) you might be exceeding the load - irons are very power hungry

They have been out and according to them there is nothing wrong. But then this is the MOD and Modern Housing Problems (the contractors they sue). SO if they admit there is anything wrong then they will need to re-wire which will cost money. And they will not spend money on anything to make life easier

Bet you live in a married quarter!!!Been there, seen it and got the T Shirt.

Poor you, now live in a nice safe house (left the Air Force and bought our own house).

We do have an extension for irongin. For the simple fact that the only plugs we can use are the one in the hall, which is very narrow and so we use the extension so we can take it in the living room. The other one is the kettle socket, again the kitchen is very narrow so we need to use an extension so we can move down the room a bit. its the same though if I use the vacum in the normal socket, or the hairdryer

Sorry if I'm being silly, I'm not sure I understand your 1659 post.
But if someone is saying nothing's wrong just so they don't have to fix it, could you get a report from another electrician, and use that to make them fix it?

Sorry if that's silly for some reason.

All the appliances you talk about are power hungry, therefore when you switch them on there is a surge and that surge can cause the circuitbreaker to trip. The amount of power coming into your property may not be sufficient for your usage.
If it only happens with certain sockets - then there could be a fault with one or more sockets. There is a small test device you can get from a DIY store which will check sockets. However, as you are in MQS, I feel it should really be your local housing officer who should arrange for them to be tested.
Moan to housing and see if they will do anything... after all, it's a health & safety issue.

Anna - If the DHE/MOD think they can get away with something then they will. You only need to look at the state of married quarters to realise that the comfort of military families is not top of their agenda.
I could get a report from another electrician, but they could then turn round and says he's wrong becasue they have been out to the electrics already. They would say that if the other electrician thinks there is a problem, or work needing done then we need to pay for it to be done ourselves. They replaced all the double sockets, only because I lied and said they sparked.

Nick - How are you? The sockets were all tested with a similar device, and apparently they were all ok. There is obviously something wrong though

I'm fine thanks. How old is the MQS? Some in my area are very old now, one estate was due to demolition back in early 90's when I did playgroup there, but it is still there now. Bet those houses have issues with electrics, as they would not have been designed for today's appliances.

As the sockets have all been tested, it is likely that you are overloading the circuit. Probably little you can do, except to unplug things that are not essential to have plugged in. I used to work in a very small office and if I wanted a coffee, I would have to turn the electric heater off before boiling the kettle. If I had both on at the same time, the electrics tripped.

Your home may have one, or two ring circuits. These will have a 30amp fuse (or 32amp MCB)at the circuit board. An Iron, Kettle, vacuum, are protected with a 13amp fuse in the plug. Other appliances will have various fuses.

If the total power consumption of the ring exceeds the circuit fuse (30amp/32amp), it will blow/trip. Therefore if you go around looking at what is plugged in, adding up all the amp ratings, with luck you will get a figure for how many amps are currently passing through the system. You may also identify power hungry appliances which you don't need on all the time - if you do find them, switch them off at the socket. By plugging in your Iron, you add another 13amp to it - which is causing the system to exceed the fuse/MCB.

I am not a qualified electrician... this is just my understanding of how it works (from reading How It Works books as a child).