Lesson learnt and general socket query

[Chris Pierce]

Hello All,

So before commenting please be aware that I have learnt my lesson and will check the power is off myself in the future.

I was hopping to change two single plug sockets in my house to two double sockets. The wiring is a bit old but on both single sockets I have two live (red) wires, two neutral (black) wires and a single earth cable that has two copper cables in one sheath. Anyway I took off the old single socket and connected the double socket and turned the power on and it worked fine. This is where it gets silly. I asked my wife to turn off the power and she said she had, (I wanted to put the single socket back on until I've decorated the room) I went to take off the double socket and there was a loud bang and a flash and the wires are now black/burnt and I had to change the fuse (old cartridge type) Either way I have two questions.

1. What caused that bang / flash? I think it came from the side where the two neutral cables were fed into the double socket. But for future reference should certain cables not touch either or was it one of the cables hitting a bit of metal on the back of the socket faceplate?

2. Is it ok to change a single to a double socket? The double socket has two earth terminals but I only have one earth cable with two coppers in the sheath. Do both coppers go into one of the earth terminals or should I split the coppers?

Thanks in advance, sorry for the long post and I do realise I am a **** for not checking the power myself.

Thanks

Chris

 

[The Ghost]

The bang/flash is a short. I suspect you did not tighten the cables correctly in their terminal. Is there any marking on the back box? Or you untightened the terminals and as it was live the live and neutral touched and bang!

 

[peterhyper]

Yeh thanks the sarcasm really helps when your worrying about something

But are you worried enough to pay a spark to check it out?

 

[peterhyper]

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