Living room circuit breaker keeps tripping

First of all people and workers are not carrying a disease so I understand the self isolation and your wife being pregnant but with the right procedure there are not things to be worried about. You said you tried to unplug everything and it trips anyway. I think probably the issue is in your breaker and it can happen. Best way to do it is to book an electrician to come over and have a look to it. You can sort with the electrician to take precautions when coming over to sort it out,such as wearing gloves and having a mask. If you not willing to do it just leave the breaker down until this situation get resolved but as far I am concerned it is not something that will end soon or in the next month.

I understand your concerns during these tough times, health and family are a priority. If you are concerned about visitors, it is probably best just to isolate the affected sockets until such a time you do feel comfortable in letting people into your home. Your description sounds like your RCD for that bank of circuits also tripped along with the MCB fuse for that circuit. Indicating an earth fault, a pretty serious short circuit if both have tripped together. Without seeing your house all I can suggest is ensuring any items plugged in have been removed, (have a good look around sometimes an extra socket or spur may have been added in a random place, an outdoor socket for example). Do this whilst the offending circuit is powered down. Do you have USB socket outlets? A fault in these could also cause your issues. Does the breaker stay on without anything plugged in? Another piece of evidence for electricians. One other potential cause is vermin, always a POTENTIAL, when a random fault arrises.

In answer to the electrical problem, it may be a faulty mcb and or RCD causing the trip especially as it has got warmer and your house environment may have changed just sufficiently to trigger a defective isolator. However if after removing all plugged in accessories it still happens this doesn’t dismiss the chance that the ring main may have had someone teeing off it with a hidden junction box or switched fused spur feeding something like an outside light that is letting dampness in? You probably will need an electrician to come around and run an insulation test on the ring to locate the problem. With regards the ignorant answer given by the other electrician. The government have tried to make it as clear as possible, but obviously over the head of some people, keep in and isolate yourself as much as possible, especially with a pregnant wife. This is a new virus that is not showing symptoms in some people, these few people may think they are clear, but could be potential carriers. It travels three ways, direct contact, spray from coughs, in the air of exhaled breath (you would know it if it had a scent like cigarettes) and by indirect contact for a short period of time. It only takes an infected carrier to say put his tools in his bag, put on his gloves come in your house, open your cupboard door, then you shut it after he goes without gloves on, now wipe the crisp from your lips and give the wife a lovely kiss! This may be an exaggerated example, but do you want to risk it?

I agree with most of what the other electricians have said. It may be a faulty RCD, I have had faults like this before. But it may also be a minor residual fault present somewhere, and when other items are becoming energized they add a little more earth leakage to the circuit(s) which becomes just a bit too much leakage for the RCD to allow, then it trips. This would explain the intermittent tripping. You will need an electrician as these faults can be tricky to locate. The electrician will test the RCD and perform insulation resistance tests on the circuit(s) to identify the fault. Also sometimes there may be a pre-existing fault that's been present for some time, all it takes is another minor fault or enough leakage to accumulate, then the RCD trips. I totally understand you not wanting people in your house at the moment so you may have to get by with what you can use for now, but might be a good idea to get somebody pencilled in for the job for when restrictions are eased. Also I have had intermittent problems before with extension leads with surge protection. If you have these, especially in multiple places, try unplugging them & using standard leads instead, or just plugging appliances directly into the sockets.