House lights problem

[codemonkey]

I turned on the hall lights today and one of the bulbs blew (the only remaining one that worked in fact). There was quite a bang and now I find that replacing the bulb does no good. Also the front room lights and the porch lights don't work either. The rest of the downstairs lights work ok.

I've checked the fuses (old wire type jobs) and they are ok. There are two 5 amp fuses with a white dot on them, pulling one turns off the rest of the downstairs lights and the other turns off all the upstairs lights. I have also swopped the two around to no avail. The rest of the fuses are 15/30 amp jobs and all seem to be ok - in that when i pull them something stops working.

I unscrewed the two hall lights and all the wires seem intact, ditto the switch.

I now throw myself on the mercy of the group.

TIA.

[Owain]

I *guess* that there's a failed joint where the hall, front room and porch lights tie into the rest of the downstairs lights, which has taken out all lights downstream of this point.

Such a joint might be in one of the other ceiling roses, but could equally be in a junction box under a floorboard somewhere.

Do rewireable fuses suggest that rewiring is needed? What is the overall state of the wiring?

Owain

[Christian McArdle]

It is likely that the current surge from the blowing incandescent light has burned away a bad connection that already existed in the wiring. Quite frankly, that and the mention of rewirable fuses strongly suggests that you should get an electrician round to do a full periodic inspection. Unless a junction box has been buried somewhere, it is likely that this survey will indicate the location of the failed connection.

The failed joint could be on any of the failed lights, or any of the other lights on the same circuit that is providing the feed. It could also be on a crimped connection or junction box buried somewhere.

Christian.

[meow2222]

switches can also fail like this.

NT

[Christian McArdle]

A failed switch is unlikely to take out 3 independent lights, though. If the house is (unusually) looped through at the switch, then the switch terminals can be at fault.

Christian.