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northernsparky

Upon doing a consumer unit upgrade + installation test today I came accross an unusal fault. I did all the usual dead tests and everything was fine, but when doing a Zs on the boiler/lighting/ring main circuits they all came back as reverse polarity. The first thing that came to mind was having the tails in the wrong way but the L+N tails were connected correctly from the meter to the DB (i tripple checked this as i have come accross meters which aren't the usual L-N-N-L connections plus i had already carried out a succeddful Ze test). The earth cable to/from the rod gave a great reading of 26 ohms although i admit it had been raining at the time of test. I checked the voltage at the boards main switch with the switch in the Off position and N-E i got a reading of 240v and 0v L-E; I also checked this at the meter, same results.

The strange thing is the fault seemed to fix itself, I didn't do anything other than remove the main fuse and then pop it back in place. Afterwards everything was working/reading fine.

Any ideas why this is as me and a colleague were stumped, dodgy meter maybe? I know it sometimes gives false readings if the batteries run low but they are fine. Any input is appreciated as i literally cant get my head around what happened.
 
I will take a stab in the dark
Poor loose connection on the feed side of the meter live load tail
Shunt coil in the meter in circuit and causing it to show 240 volt on the load neutral
Circuit reverse polarity also because of this
Nothing on Live- earth at the board because of the bad/open connection
Removing and replacing main fuse made the connection functional and all voltage readings and polarity corrected

Remote guessworking
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The first thing to check is the continuity of your BS1363 test lead set, if the earth lead in the lead is broken or intermittent your meter may interpret this as reverse polarity on TN-S or TT installations. Remember to flex the leads, particularly at stress points, while checking continuity.
 

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Title
domestic TT system strange fault
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Domestic Electrician Forum
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northernsparky,
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