half our lights have stopped working - any ideas ?

news · 2007-12-14T10:01:42+00:00

Hi guys - any ideas gratefully receivedUp to a year ago we had old consumer unit with big fuses that we had to wind wire round. If a light bulb went then, the rest all worked still.A year ago we had some building work done and got electrician to replace consumer unit with modern one. Since then if a light bulb goes, none at all work, switch trips on consumer unit and we have to reset it.Electrician reckoned wiring c25 years old, no earth in lighting circuit, all lights definitely on one circuit. (OK we'd like to get it re-wired, but don't have the money at present).This morning bulb went in son's bedroom. All lights went out, switch tripped on consumer unit as normal. Replaced bulb, reset consumer Unit switch, lights came back on.Then, a minute or so later for no apparent reason, all lights went out for about 2 seconds, consumer unit didn't trip, half lights came back on (most downstairs) and most lights upstairs remained off. Good thing I have lots of lamps ;)Never had this before, weird ...Husband is not clueless :) he can check for obvious things, but is no good with multimeter ... Any ideas gratefully received for obvious things he can check over weekend before I resort to calling out electrician.Val