Yes, it's those damn light fittings again! Really annoyed I didn't get a picture.
Anyway, a mate asked me to look at a lighting problem in his house, where a switch put on 2 lights, and the other switch (2 gang) did nothing, whereas he wanted 1 switch to put on center light and one to put on wall light. Ok, one switch put on both, the other (tested live on both sides) did nothing.
The double switch was brass, the cables to the switches were t&e with the cpc unsheathed but connected to the back-box earth terminal...however, the chap who had installed the new ceiling light had omitted to screw the brass front back onto the back-box, so it was "floating", with no earth connection. OK, maybe that's not too serious, but when I tweaked it away from the wall, 2 of the 4 connections fell out of their screw connectors which were so loose they can hardly have been connecting at all. I checked what I could, sleeved the earth wires, took an extra earth from the back of the plate and also screwed the plate onto the back-box. Impossible to tell where the wiring had gone wrong, so resolved to return another day. My mate said the ceiling light was very recent...nice polished-nickel effect job...so I decided to have a look. Typical ikea or jl item, quite well made though, all metal and the connector was the typical choc-block 3 way with L E N, the E having a metal tag bolted to the fitting. The L was L, the N was N, the E was...the CPC on the cable had been cut short, and the excess twisted round the PVC sheath to keep it tidy and out of the way...
I mentioned that the wires seemed a bit dull, almost corroded, and my mate said that water had been leaking through that outlet for ages until he got the roof repaired, which was when he got the new light fitting.
So, unearthed Class 1 light fitting, and unearthed metal switch-plate (which didn't do what it was supposed to do) and who had done this work?
Andy! The daughter's boyfriend, and apprentice electrician...
Do they think they know it all?
Anyway, a mate asked me to look at a lighting problem in his house, where a switch put on 2 lights, and the other switch (2 gang) did nothing, whereas he wanted 1 switch to put on center light and one to put on wall light. Ok, one switch put on both, the other (tested live on both sides) did nothing.
The double switch was brass, the cables to the switches were t&e with the cpc unsheathed but connected to the back-box earth terminal...however, the chap who had installed the new ceiling light had omitted to screw the brass front back onto the back-box, so it was "floating", with no earth connection. OK, maybe that's not too serious, but when I tweaked it away from the wall, 2 of the 4 connections fell out of their screw connectors which were so loose they can hardly have been connecting at all. I checked what I could, sleeved the earth wires, took an extra earth from the back of the plate and also screwed the plate onto the back-box. Impossible to tell where the wiring had gone wrong, so resolved to return another day. My mate said the ceiling light was very recent...nice polished-nickel effect job...so I decided to have a look. Typical ikea or jl item, quite well made though, all metal and the connector was the typical choc-block 3 way with L E N, the E having a metal tag bolted to the fitting. The L was L, the N was N, the E was...the CPC on the cable had been cut short, and the excess twisted round the PVC sheath to keep it tidy and out of the way...
I mentioned that the wires seemed a bit dull, almost corroded, and my mate said that water had been leaking through that outlet for ages until he got the roof repaired, which was when he got the new light fitting.
So, unearthed Class 1 light fitting, and unearthed metal switch-plate (which didn't do what it was supposed to do) and who had done this work?
Andy! The daughter's boyfriend, and apprentice electrician...
Do they think they know it all?
then have his screwdrivers confiscated
