Had a prom last night in a local rugby club. and about half an hour from the end, just playing some Dnb and suddenly all the power went off. I was using 2 wasll sockets, one for lighting and one for sound and both were dead. so i checked other nearby sockets - all down! anyway, the manager was useless but i eventually managed to find the fusebox and some of the breakers had tripped out - one being the 30A breaker for the upstairs ring main!
Now there is no way i was drawing even close to 30A (i can run the whole rig i was using off 13A if i need to) and it wasnt as iff the power cut out when i turned the smoke machine / an amp on or anything - it just seemed to happen for no reason.
It doesnt often happen but im stumped - i can see why this happened - could it be something completly unrelated to my equipment that made the power go off (after resetting the breaker everything powered up at the same time and i continued on for the rest of the night). I think it must have been unrelated to me - trouble is everyones gonna just assume its the dj's fault! NOT good for business! i did think that perhaps Guildford festival going on in stoke park next door could have caused a surge or something?
Any ideas guys - im a bit worried for tonight as i have to run the whole lot off 1 13A socket 30m away from the house!!!
THanks
Steve

Okay if you where on a 30A ring main then chances are there could have been one to several other outlets on the same breaker. any number of appliances could have been plugged into these sockets as well as your equipment .

MCB's as they are called, have a habit of tripping for small reasons, such as dirt in the thermostat of a heater or cooler, or even just becoming over sensitive - sometimes bulbs failing have a habit of setting them off, so if you use lightboxes which use mains lamps then it may be worth checking for failed lamps which could have been the cause.

If you had tripped the ELCB (Which is the main earth leakage protection breaker), then it may be worth checking your gear over, if it was just the circuit breaker that tripped then I wouldn't be too concerned.

A month ago I did a booking in a local village hall and the MCB tripped when I turned the first amp on , plugging it in another socket which was also protected by a similar distribution box and breaker also solved the problem. Verdict:- either there was something else sharing the same circuit and drawing almost the maximum current from the breaker or that it was just a faulty breaker.

It was simply possible that given the fact you were on a ring main, there could have been a few beer pumps, 2kw of floodlighting, and the odd 3kw urn sharing your circuit and the additional load of your gear caused it to trip. Unless it happens again tonight, then I wouldn't worry too much about it.

For tonights gig - still not a good idea to run off 1 13A socket - try and keep your lights on one feed and your audio on another - even if it means using your own extension, or pop out to B&Q and buy one this afternoon. Incidentally, for outside / marquee bookings I insist in my contract that there are to be at least two protected outlets available for the Disco..if there isn't then I don't set up

I think it's a reaction to the Drum & Bass.

SABOTAGE !!!

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managed to find the fusebox and some of the breakers had tripped out

You were only using sockets that were on one breaker. EG: The 30amp ringmain for the sockets.

Nothing, to my knowledge, INSIDE a building would have tripped several breakers. OUTSIDE however, was it thundering?

Much more likely that some heckler wasnt a D&B fan, but knew where the fusebox was.

Gary.....You are getting paranoid in your old age!

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Much more likely that some heckler wasnt a D&B fan, but knew where the fusebox was.

I had thought of that actually - but none of the breakers were labelled and i only knew which ones to turn back on coz they weer pointing the opposite way to the others!!
I was plugged into RCD'd so i think the equipment should all be ok - im gnna go check now. And think i might take your advice chris and pop out to get another extension reel from b&q for tonight!
Thanks guys
Steve

AHA! ("Take on me", anyone?)

If none of the breakers were labelled...then even more now points toward drunken (or rival DJ) sabotage...

Thug mentality: Keep flicking breaker switches until the music goes off...



Apart from a lightning strike or other surge, theres not a single (other) explanation for the several -different- breakers to go off at the same time. EG: A fault in the sockets that you were using, shouldnt have tripped the hall lighting, or the cooker socket, or the upstairs sockets, for example...

Still, you can never have too many extension leads. remember to unroll them fully when in use, if they are on reels.

Mmm - maby - i hope so in a way! im gonna pop down there now and see exactly what it was that went off. now that its light and im not stressed!

Im just glad that ive had alot of experience, both dj'ing and crew on pa rigs - if that had happened to me a few years back i wouldnt have had a clue what to do! The manager (woman) was just like " ummmm - theres a whole load of switch things in here but i dsont know what they do" when i asked her to check teh breakers lol!

Anyway - great gig in the end - and got 2 more bookings out of it lol

I wouldn't have even looked at the fusebox as I'm not a qualified sparky and if ANYTHING happened after I touched anything I could be liable, I would have started to pack up and gone home, not my problem that there was no power.

I wouldnt have touched anything other than the breakers - but i wouldnt want to stop such a great party in the middle - that would have been a bad reflection on me if i had just adopted the - i dont care - im going home - approach.

Anyay last nights gig - did the whole thing off 1 socket 30m away (1000 watts of light, 1000 watts of sound ish) and had no troubles all night - so i think ill forget about fridays trouble!
Thanks for the advice guys