Home Electrics - urgent help needed

We tend to keep the bathroom light on all night in case of our daughter's sleepwalking. I woke this morning to discover all the upstairs lights weren't working and assumed a bulb had blown somewhere and tripped the fuse box. This is not a rare ocurrence (we lose a light bulb about every week or so).

Looking at the fusebox, the switch for upstairs lighting had indeed tripped. But when I tried to flick it back on, the result was an electrical bang somewhere in the circuit and the lights stayed off. So we are currently facing Christmas without lighting upstairs.

Does this sound like we just need a fuse changing, or do we need to call in an electrician?

Reply to
snowmanmagnet
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The breaker was doing its job Snowman; you must identify what part of circuit is exhibiting sizzed cable/connection. Brown marks and /or a whiff of burning smell is clue. Look in light fitting terminals; that can be done from inside the room with power off of course.

No way should you be be getting through that many bulbs.

So some time in loft is order of day or you could call in a sparkie; hate to think what price they are at this time of year.

In loft look for any round probably brown or white connector boxes; it may be as simple as one cable strand having come loose and touching an adjacent terminal; that's all it takes.

Before stores shut make sure you have some replacement cable to hand either 1mm or 1.5mm twin & earth...& torch batteries.

Have you recently installed a new fitting that was start of this episode?

Post back with any follow up so others can benefit.

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote:

Reply to
Gel

Unless you are really unlucky with your purchase of bulbs, one bulb per week seems excessive. The symptoms sound as if there is a short-circuit somewhere that caused the most recent trip, and then when you forced the switch back on you made sure that power continued to flow and hence gave the short circuit another go.

Unless you are confident in your electrical abilities, and presuming that you want to see Christmas at all (never mind having the upstairs illuminated) I'd call in an electrician. And if you don't secure the services of an electrician, take care with any candles.

Hope you get a cure in time for Santa.

Mungo

Reply to
Mungo

With all due respect, I think that the fact that you've had to ask, and the terminology you've used, suggest that you really must get an electrician, or at very least a genuinely competent d-i-yer, to look at it pdq.

If you absolutely can't do that, at least try to isolate the fault by turning off every upstairs light, see if the mcb still trips when you turn it on, then turn each light on in turn to see if you can narrow it down.

Reply to
Autolycus

Remove every light bulb upstairs. Try turning the lighting circuit back on again.

If it still trips you have a wiring problem, which needs an electrician.

If it doesn't trip then it is a faulty bulb(s) and is just a matter of testing them all.

First of all, shake each bulb and discard any that 'tinkle'.

Now test all the others to check that they light up ok. You need to do the test at a lamp socket which you know for certain is OFF when bulbs are plugged in, and turned ON from a safe distance. A table lamp plugged into a 13A switched socket is a possible alternative.

Hopefully that will solve your problem.

Reply to
Tony Williams

You have accurately assessed my level of electrical knowledge!

I have now narrowed it down to one light fitting which was the source of the electrical bang (the base of the bulb has come detached and is stuck in the socket). Turning it on or off makes no difference to what happens when I flick the trip switch.

I'll try and find a sparky...

Reply to
snowmanmagnet

Without sounding funny about this, why the bathroom?

Use standard lamps in the upstairs rooms for now till after xmas otherwise you will be billed twice the amount of a normal call out. Take the upstairs fuse out for safety reasons.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

Reply to
The3rd Earl Of Derby

================== I would suggest that you leave the offending circuit switched off as it's possibly a fire risk. Leave it until you can find the problem at your leisure without having to pay 'Christmas Bonus' callout charges. If you must have lights upstairs use extension leads and / or table lights where light is essential. But remember that extension leads can be just as dangerous as any other hazard if they're left where people can trip over them.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

Under the circumstances, you need to bite the bullet and get an electrician out PDQ. I know others have suggested candles, standard lamps and extensions, but the consequences of an accident do not bear thinking about with children in the house, let alone with a child that sleepwalks.

Reply to
SimonJ

Could you tell roughly where the bang came from?

No fuse - the MCB does that function. It could be it's faulty. If it's ok and no lights on the circuit work, the fault must be in the wiring between the MCB and the first light in the circuit. It's very unlikely the wire itself has a fault, so I'd guess at the connection to the MCB or the first light on the circuit. Hence asking where the bang came from.

It should be a relatively simple fault to fix - assuming a reasonable competency with electrics.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Let me guess... bathroom fitting with an enclosed cover? They are always overheating and melting cables in every rented and owned house I've ever had. They are supposed to have heatproof cable and often they don't.

To get the bulb base out without cut fingers press a potato or carrot into it so you can push and twist.

Reply to
PC Paul

Well, I've never known a snowman work as a spark.

I like the idea of turning off all lights, and removing all bulbs, powering on, then first switching on all switches, then adding bulbs - switch each light off, add bulb, switch on. Chances are good its just a bad bulb. I had one here blow its little brains out recently, took out the circuit with a bang.

you probably dont need one

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Thanks for all the help. We call out an elctrician (on Xmas Eve as well) who diagnosed the problem as a overloaded light combined with some very dodgy wiring in the loft. This had caused the wiring within the light itself to fuse, creating a short circuit.

The root of the problem seems to have been the insulation on the wires which was very old PVC which had effectively fused with the wire itself. He replaced the wire to the affected light socket and added a circuit breaker and recommended we get a full safety inspection asap.

Glad it didn't happen on Xmas Day...

Reply to
snowmanmagnet

Good stuff.

In everyones interest...how much did the bill come to? :-)

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

Reply to
The3rd Earl Of Derby

I wondered how long it would be before somone asked that!

We rang the bloke at about 9, he arrived at 10 and finished by 11. He asked for =A347. I gave him =A350.

A bargain for such excellent service.

Reply to
snowmanmagnet

PVC doesn't normally age - it sounds like it's been overheated through a poor connection.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Not a bad price at all

Reply to
SimonJ

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