Done something to the electrics in my house

Phate

Phate

Phate

Caporegime
Joined
1 Nov 2003
Posts
35,691
Location
Lisbon, Portugal
Hey guys,

Whilst flexing the old DIY elbow earlier I had to take off a light switch. So I turned the electric off, took the switch off, did what I needed to do and put the switch on exactly how it was before then switched le electric back on.

Now the lights won't turn on in half of the house, including the light for the switch I changed.

:rolleyes:

Great!

Any ideas folks? The switch is exactly how it was before (hard to get wrong with only 2 cables) - and now it won't work. I'd tried removing and reseating the cables but no avail.

Any help appreciated!
 
You tripped a breaker for the ring that connects to the light switch you were fiddling with.

Go look at the big fuse box, one switch would be on a different position to the rest.
 
Checked that, plus my house is old school it's got the wire type fuses on them. It has one fuse to control all the lights and half the house is working fine!
 
RomanNose said:
Turn it off and on again.
Click to expand...

Hilarious.

Anyway, I've had a thought.

In my ex's house when I fitted a ceiling fan I had something similar she had 2 black cables and a red for the wiring in her place and when I had to leave the cables hanging for a bit and turned the leccy back on I had to connect the two black cables for the lights to work again.

My light switch has 1 red and 1 black cable, so similar wiring (both are old houses) but I'm wondering if it's the switch itself? And shouldn't there be a second black cable?!
 
The switch will have a common live and a switch live in it, neutral are usually bunched together in the rose. It's more likely someone ran a black cable to the switch as switch live. Are you sure there's not an earth in the back box that you've dislodged ?
 
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LOAM said:
The switch will have a common live and a switch live in it, neutral are usually bunched together in the rose. It's more likely someone ran a black cable to the switch as switch live.
Click to expand...

Hmm so 2 cables going to it is fine then.

I'm beginning to think it could be the switch....*hunts around for a spare switch*
 
The switch only control's that light, breaking it shouldn't upset the loop as all it does is break the live that's been taken off the loop for that light. The other lives and neutrals are bunched n the rose.

The fact that half the lights work does suggest that you've blown a breaker on that loop. Is it all upstairs / all downstairs ?
 
did you only touch the switch elec wise nothing else?

Just 2 wires behind the switch shouldn't be able to affect anything else, but if it had loop in at the switch wiring maybe it has dislodged the loop for the other rooms etc

Loop in would have more wires in a connector block in the switch box
 
LOAM said:
The switch only control's that light, breaking it shouldn't upset the loop as all it does is break the live that's been taken off the loop for that light. The other lives and neutrals are bunched n the rose.

The fact that half the lights work does suggest that you've blown a breaker on that loop. Is it all upstairs / all downstairs ?
Click to expand...

Should have been more specific it is a bungalow. I have 4 fuses for the electrics in the house, one controls the lights throughout. The best I can describe it is the lights on the right side of the place, the hallway and 2 bedrooms and the right hand side of the living room work fine, on the other side, kitchen, bathroom and other living room light (which is what the switch is for) do not work.

HardwareGeek said:
did you only touch the switch elec wise nothing else?

Just 2 wires behind the switch shouldn't be able to affect anything else, but if it had loop in at the switch wiring maybe it has dislodged the loop for the other rooms etc

Loop in would have more wires in a connector block in the switch box
Click to expand...

Yeah only the switch mate.

Le switch:

switch.JPG
 
Could be the fuse its worth a try to test it or if you don't have the tools just rewire it, just cos the rest of the lights work doesn't mean that the fuse is ok, half the lights might be running off another fuse.

lots of places aren't wired right or how you would expect etc.
 
HardwareGeek said:
Could be the fuse its worth a try to test it or if you don't have the tools just rewire it, just cos the rest of the lights work doesn't mean that the fuse is ok, half the lights might be running off another fuse.

lots of places aren't wired right or how you would expect etc.
Click to expand...

I've checked all of them, and the wire is fine in them though. Unless theres a fuse in the loft (which there isn't as far as I know!)

This is annoying :( I just had to shower in the pitch black :mad:

It is probably something really simple!!!
 
Might wanna check again, not always obvious if they are blown, i.e its not always a clear break in the centre that you can see in the fuse carrier, you could use a continuity tester to prove it or just rewire to be sure, or just swap the fuses around for a minute but thats not exactly recommended if they are different ratings.

Not really sure how you could have blown it, if you have power off before working on it and it doesn't appear earthed anyway (earth is cut back) backbox maybe earthed or earthed through conduit and you trapped a cable when screwing it back or something idk, doesn't look like it in the pic though, or pure coincidence like a bulb blown has taken it out.
 
Realistically it can only be one of 2 things;

1. You've done something to the loop and everything past that break won't work.
2. It's something at the distribution board.
 
Next step is to find out what is wrong, if its a loop problem, you normally try and imagine what order the lights are wired in and then check the last working light and first non working light in the order you imagine them to be wired and check for loose connections.
 
Ok sorted it.

I started mucking around with the fuses.

Basically I have 4 fuses

1 - 2 - 3 - 4

All 5Amp/250V fuses, so all interchangable.

I swapped 3 and 4 and none of the lights came back on, odd...so I put 4 back in its place, put 1 in 3's spot and the rest of the lights came on and put 3 in 1's spot and the light I had running from it (a mains light) didn't come back on.

Bingo, dodgy fuse even though the wiring is fine. Thanks for your help everyone!
 
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