Could a relay switch be causing the havoc in my home?

[Tardigrade]

Hi guys,

Don't know if I picked the wrong builder, products, am desperately unlucky or its the relay switch...all help much appreciated!

Background facts
• Back to bricks refurb of duplex flat, all new wiring etc.
• Upstairs en suite utilises same in line fan as existing bathroom. Builder therefore put in a metal box in my airing cupboard he referred to as a relay switch, with the function of "if either bathroom's lights are on, turn fan on".
• I have a ton of ceiling lights linked to dimmer switches as I'm visually impaired.
• I had cable runs installed for virgin and tv aerial under the flooring

Symptoms
• My 2gbit powerline adapters are providing 60mbit from downstairs to upstairs, and 100mbit downstairs only. Swapping the adapters around, I agree with TP Link technical support that this is not a faulty set of adapters but rather there must be "electrical interference" in my house. What I don't know if it is simply "normal" to accept the "distance" of going upstairs leads to this loss of 95% performance typically; or if this is a sign of terrible wiring; or if it is the relay switch dominating upstairs.

• Around 5 of my 14 V-Pro dimmer switches have failed. Some in days, one took a month. Many but not all failures upstairs (ie fairly close to relay switch, which is central placement).

• Around 15 of 30 odd dimmable lights from LEDHut have failed. I think this one is more likely to be product quality - amazonbasics replacements seem to be holding up. Also, the best survivors are actually closest to the switch.

• Engineers have determined both the virgin cable and tv aerial cable are suffering from a ton of "noise". They attributed this to damaged cables in the under floor area- they didn't know of the existence of the switch. There are two virgin cables - the working one without noise (tv) doesn't get as close to the relay as the "broken" one (broadband).

• I'm about to get Virgin to drill another hole in my house, and ruin the decorating somewhat, to run another cable to replace the "broken" one. My fear now is they'll do all that work only to find the cables are "still broken" - and that the issue is actually one of noise caused by the relay switch.

Thoughts?!

Thanks!

 

[Octopus]

OK. As I tried to view the cert on my phone I have a copy ............ I'll upload it later if the OP seems reluctant.

The main earth is undersized .............. C2 / unsatisfactory
The circuit arrangement and the RCD's suggest this install wasn't done by a spark .....................

Next!

 

[Strima]

I've had cheap LED lamps causing interference on DAB radio reception in a property but not on fixed wiring systems.

I would suggest a good spark goes in an checks the full installation. I wouldn't put it past the builder to have not bothered tightening up terminations etc.

Was the builder insured to carry out electrical work?

 

[Squid]

Where in London are you as maybe someone local could take a look?

 

[Tardigrade]

I took down the document as I had the answers I needed thanks to the many helpful responses. It has personal data in it so please do not re-upload.

I'm in Camden (Gospel Oak), but having been made redundant recently simply don't have the cash to do anything about the problem at the moment.

Thanks again all for your help.

 

[Octopus]

So you did the selection and installation of products then ........

 

[MDJ]

Why not just ring your builder and ask him to sort it?

 

[Octopus]

I took down the document as I had the answers I needed thanks to the many helpful responses. It has personal data in it so please do not re-upload..

I could easily redact the necessary information.......

Still think you are not telling us the whole story...

 

[alasdairp]

I agree with almost all of the comments above. In my many years experience of installing wiring and Ethernet (and Powerline PLC adapters), most dimmers are terrible for interfering with Powerline Adapter signalling - even though they are on different circuits. I agree that being on different RCDs will greatly impair the data connection between upstairs and downstairs. Wired CAT5 / CAT6 and screened are all far, far better than PLC or WiFi. I think the relay box is not part of the problem here.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Try to eliminate the dimmers, put normal switch's in place if the interference goes away well and good, if not then move on to the next possible source, the bulbs themselves, I have found that non mains LED's cause more problems than they are worth, especially the transformers, now there's a thought.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Double post?

 

[EalingBadger]

Try to eliminate the dimmers, put normal switch's in place if the interference goes away well and good, if not then move on to the next possible source, the bulbs themselves, I have found that non mains LED's cause more problems than they are worth, especially the transformers, now there's a thought.

The "transformers" (in reality poor quality switched mode power supplies more often than not) are renowned for being electrically absolutely filthy.