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I was sitting watching TV, Julie was in her office doing the same thing when suddenly the light went out and I thought it was a blown globe until I realised that all the lights in the house had gone out. Just the lights, all other power still ok. I went to the meter box and found that the light circuit breaker had tripped so switched it back on and all ok. Pressed the test button which caused it to trip as expected, switched it back on and all fine. We have never had this happen before so I am now wondering what could be the cause.

George

George, could someone passing by have access to your fuse box? Sadly this is a play to get you out of the house to jump in and rob the joint or cause mischief. It could also be a partial black out, where you are not supplied with quite enough power to keep everything running, but that wouldn't have stopped the fuse working.

We had our lights doing that and suspected a few bored teenagers, passing the house.
Because we travel so much, we have a padlock on the fusebox that the electricity people provided (money exchanged hands of course) and have had no issues since putting that on.

Hope you find your answer.

If it isn't someone deliberately turning off the circuit breaker, it could be a mouse having a feed on the wiring insulation. Do you have any downlights? Or ceiling fans?

Deborah, our fuse box is about 30 metres from the street and quite difficult for intruders to get to as they would have to climb a retaining wall and then get over a small fence and as it occurred at about 9:45pm I doubt that is the problem. I had Ausgrid check and rectify all power problems within the street due to high and low grid voltage several months ago.

Dave, we have 3 ceiling fans in the upper level of the house so will have to check the wiring there, if it happens again .

George

Maybe a poltergeist by the name of Brian.

Nah. it's the over spray on the wires tripping the breaker.

George, I would forget about ghosts and overspray. But you probably have already. But I would seriously consider getting your son the electrician to check all the capacitors that are part of the fan switch. They have a bit of a habit of failing. Once upon a time they would start fires. Thank God for RCD's.

Thanks Dave, they did it again 20 minutes ago and it may have been when our lodger arrived home and switched her bedroom fan on. Lights are on with her fan switched off so will leave it that way until the morning when i can do some testing in the daylight.

George

George, sounds like David has found your possible problem and thank goodness for breaker switches. Reckon many homes have been saved by them. Hope you have your answer and fix real soon.

Problem solved. It was moisture in outside floodlight caused by me when I pressure cleaned the eaves a week ago . Thanks for all the suggested fixes.

George