Done something to the electrics in my house

[Phate]

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.



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!

 

[Phate]

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!

 

[Phate]

Turn it off and on again.

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?!

 

[Phate]

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.

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*

 

[Phate]

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 ?

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.

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

Yeah only the switch mate.

Le switch:

 

[Phate]

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.

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

It is probably something really simple!!!

 

[Phate]

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!

 

[Phate]

Np, enjoy your lights

Give tony a tickle also

Git is asleep on my bed, hasn't moved all day!