Lighting Issue

morrisgilmore · Nov 3, 2013

Hello folks

Just Looking for some help regarding a lighting problem i have encountered. I Have recently been renovating a house im soon to let out and last night i was fitting a new ceiling light in one of the upstair bedrooms, before screwing the light to the holding bracket i put 1 screw in 1 side of the holder and turned the mains to the house back on to check the light wa working and it was. so i stupidly decided to go ahead and put the other screw into the holding bracket just as i was screwing it in i got a blue flash and the electric to the house tripped.

Once i restored the electric to the house by turning the mains back on i found the light to be no longer working and neither is the lighting to the other 2 bedrooms and bathroom. however the landing light is working and so are all the wall sockets upstairs, downstairs is all fine aswell.

Im just trying to locate the problem and thought i might have blown a fuse, but on my electric board their is no sign of any fuses anywhere! on the board is a mains/trip switch and about 3 foot from that is an rccb unit and im not sure if they take a fuse or not or if i could have blown a fuse inside one of them.

the only other thing i can think of doing at this point i to get into the loft and see if theirs any wires need repairing up their as ive clearly hit one with the screw hence the blue flash and trip.

any help or suggestions would be much appreaciated. im a retired carpenter and usualy quite competant at this but we all make a mistake once in a while dont we

Morris

Tridentsystems · Nov 4, 2013

Best bet is to call a sparky. As you've created a fault it's unlikely anyone will want to comment. Could be wrong but its a quick cheap fix

Rockingit · Nov 4, 2013

Sounds to me like you've screwed through a line conductor and shorted to earth. So before anything else, that cable will now need repairing (most likely the section replacing). You sound out of your depth regardless, so call a reputable sparks in for an hour.

Marvo · Nov 4, 2013

Unfortunately you broke two golden rules that keep (most of) us alive whilst working on electrics. Firstly isolate (pull fuse) on the circuit you're working on and secondly test before you reapply power. You're lucky you didn't hurt yourself or possibly worse.

As already stated the damaged cabling will need repairing and testing. It's unlikely you'll have the tools or the knowhow to do this so I'd suggest yu call an local experienced sparky. If you show him the area where you were working it's unlikely to take long for him/her to repair so it shouldn't be expensive.