Short circuited lighting circuit

manisinghb

manisinghb

manisinghb

Associate
Joined
12 Apr 2009
Posts
627
Hi all. Seems like a simple fix just need some advice. I was fixing LED strips in the kitchen today. The switch in the kitchen is a 2-gang which powers the LED strips and the ceiling lights.

There are 3 seperate LED strips to go around the kitchen, each connected to an LED driver and power cable (live & neutral). 1 strip works off a fused spur and the other 2 strips work off another fused spur. But both fused spurs connect to the same light switch.

I connected a strip to the lone fused spur first. Installed a 3amp fuse in the spur switch and it worked brilliantly for a couple hours. Then I unhooked the wires to adjust everything and make it nice and neat. When reconnecting every thing back I must've let the live (brown) and neutral (blue) power cables connected to the spur touch each other. I heard a very faint "poof" and the circuit breaker for the kitchen lights flipped off. So I switched the fuse spur off and switched the circuit breaker back on but the LED strips don't go back on. I've tried reconnecting and trying different LED strip and driver but still not working.

I tried connecting to the other fused spur too but no luck, doesn't work either.

The kitchen ceiling lights are on the same circuit and switch and work fine. Wondering what could be the issue and whether it's what I'm dreading; the power cable connecting between the fused spurs and light switch are damaged?
 
manisinghb said:
When reconnecting every thing back I must've let the live (brown) and neutral (blue) power cables connected to the spur touch each other. I heard a very faint "poof" and the circuit breaker for the kitchen lights flipped off.
Click to expand...
you re-connected stuff up whilst it was live, or, don't know how/where you created a short ... that's a poor work technique - get an electrician in.
 
jpaul said:
you re-connected stuff up whilst it was live, or, don't know how/where you created a short ... that's a poor work technique - get an electrician in.
Click to expand...

Reconnected stuff with switches off. Just to clarify, I switched everything off before i unhooked and reconnected it all. Once everything was reconnected that's when i switched everything back on and that's when i assume the live and neutral wires must've touched each other.
 
Last edited:
would have either damaged the light fittings or the switch.

It's unlikely to have done proper damage to cables, it's usually accessories that take the damage.
 
You are just guessing without a way to check for power at each point.

Either get a meter or just get an electrician.
 
Thank you for your input all. Bought a multimeter at the weekend and it was the fuse in the end.

The 3amp fuse was in the switch when the issue occurred so I understand this. Don't understand why the 5amp fuse is blown though as I put this in after?

Nevertheless, put in a 3 amp fuse on Saturday and all seems well now.

Once again, thank you.
 
Last edited:
You've got a 13A fuse on a lighting circuit? Each floor of my house only has a 6A MCB for everything and that's overkill now that all of the bulbs are low energy.
 
manisinghb said:
Thank you for your input all. Bought a multimeter at the weekend and it was the fuse in the end.

The 3amp fuse was in the switch when the issue occurred so I understand this. Don't understand why the 5amp fuse is blown though as I put this in after?

Nevertheless, put in a 13 amp fuse on Saturday and all seems well now.

Once again, thank you.
Click to expand...
Please change the 13A fuse, you're not providing any protection at all with such a high fuse in it.
 
Hyburnate said:
Please change the 13A fuse, you're not providing any protection at all with such a high fuse in it.
Click to expand...

I really do apologise for the massive mistypo there! Meant to write put in a new 3 amp fuse not 13! Not a professional by any means but even I have that much common knowledge lol.

Once again, thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom