Isolating a lighting circuit

[pugsley]

I'm currently minding our neighbour's house and animals whilst they are abroad for a month. The kitchen lights are suddenly causing the downstairs lighting circuit to trip. When I reset the switch all other lighting, lounge and hall work ok, but if I try the kitchen lights then the circuit trips again. For this reason I had left the circuit turned off.

My neighbours are due back very soon, and probably in the middle of the night. Do you think it would be ok to reset the circuit and leave the hall light on? I would isolate the kitchen light switch, and leave them note. I've tried texting them but no reply.

A steer would be appreciated.

 

[Richard Burns]

So long as you are certain that the kitchen light fault is after the switch then there should be no problem with leaving the circuit on and ensuring the kitchen light switch does not get turned on.
However it would be a matter of urgency to get the fault repaired as soon as possible as causing an MCB to trip is a strain on the circuit breaker.
An alternative would be to put a standard lamp in the hall along with a note and leave the lighting isolated.

 

[pugsley]

So long as you are certain that the kitchen light fault is after the switch then there should be no problem with leaving the circuit on and ensuring the kitchen light switch does not get turned on.
However it would be a matter of urgency to get the fault repaired as soon as possible as causing an MCB to trip is a strain on the circuit breaker.
An alternative would be to put a standard lamp in the hall along with a note and leave the lighting isolated.

Thanks for the quick response Richard. I'll probably go for the lamp route and leave the circuit off. I agree on getting it fixed, luckily it's not my problem.

Thanks again.