Hi all,
I recently had outdoor electrical work done. The setup is as follows:
Indoor (living room) socket
-> Fused Connection Unit (3A) -> outdoor light
-> Fused Connection Unit (13A) -> double socket (IP66 rated)
Double socket RHS -> surge protected extension cord (in shed) -> Freezer (in shed)
Double socket LHS -> Google Camera (outdoor rated)
Pictures of the double socket are attached.
The circuit board has 2 RCDs, each covering the fuses of half the circuits.
For the first 2 weeks I have had no issues whatsoever. At 3pm yesterday, I lost power to the freezer and camera. Unsure whether power was lost at entry to the socket or not. The sockets have red indicator lights which turn off and voltage pen shows no power after the circuit. There was definitely still power into the FCU.
I opened the cover, and within minutes the power returned. It then intermittently cut out and returned for a short period over the next 20 minutes. It has worked continuously for the 19 hours since.
The strange part is that nothing has tripped, no fuses have blown, etc.
I should note that it was a hot-ish day (20+ degrees) yesterday with the socket in direct sunlight and no clouds the entire day.
My current theory is that it is getting extremely hot inside the protective casing and something inside the socket is shutting off to protect it.
Does anyone else have any suggestions? If it is a matter of it overheating, might it be sufficient to replace the box with an opaque white one rather than the dark transparent one, or does it need boxing-in / moving?