Is my house wired wrongly?

[Chippy_boy]

Hello folks, I hope you don't mind but I've just joined up to ask this question.

I just took two adjacent mains sockets off the wall in my bedroom to do some wallpapering, and having switched off at the consumer unit, I also tested with a multimeter to make doubly sure they were off. One of them was off, but to my enormous surprise, the other was live. That seemed pretty odd since I cannot imagine why they would be on separate circuits. I have two mains circuit switches in the consumer unit, which I had assumed was one for upstairs and the other for downstairs, but clearly not.

That was the first surprise. The other more concerning surprise was that in the live socket, one side of the incoming ring main was live and the other red wire was not.

How can I have a ring main that is live on one side and not live on the other side? Does this indicate there's a break in the ring somewhere and is this a problem? Or am I simply misunderstanding how it works?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Rpa07]

Ive PM'd OP as he's local to me and more local to my sister and she makes cakes! Win Win

 

[Chippy_boy]

When you chuck in bridge tolls, it's a bit too far to make it economically viable for a small job.

Have a look on the site in the 'Find an Electrician' section. If you get stuck, I've got a spark friend just up the road from Bristol who may cover your area.

Thanks - there's a guy I know locally who did the wiring for our kitchen and bathrooms who's very good, so I'll check it out with him at the appropriate time.

Ive PM'd OP as he's local to me and more local to my sister and she makes cakes! Win Win

Rob - got your PM and that's a super generous and kind offer. To be honest, I am really not that bothered about it, I was puzzled more than anything else. In due course I'll get it looked at and will be sure to give you a shout.

And I'd just like to add that as a total newb on here, I've been massively impressed with how friendly and helpful everyone is. Really really impressed.

FWIW I graduated in Physics donkeys years back so I have a pretty good understanding of how electrics "work", but very little understanding of the regs and what tests can be done and what test equipment exists, let alone how to use it. So I haven't found any of the posts even slightly condescending nor patronising. Not a bit. "Get an electrician in" is absolutely the best advice for someone as unqualified as me, I am sure.

 

[Pete999]

agree with you and pete and most other experienced guys/dolls on the forum.

if i need glasses, i go to an optician; i suppose i could buy tesco £1.99 ones, but then i'd not see that motorbike coming and probably kill him. horses for courses. i'm leaving the trade anyway. there's a 5 week neurosurgery course available, courtesy of brains 4 u. at the end of the 5 weeks. i'll be qualified to remove brain tumours. they run a parallel course as well; how to defend a lawsuit, hosted by harold shipman.

I was thinking of re training, let me know what the course is like Tel, could do with a few extra shillings, new phrase for KennyKen "boil in the bag brain surgeon" sounds good.