Littlespark A Thread A Day (4) “spider senses tingling”

[littlespark]

New customer asked me to have a look at her upstairs lighting… was tripping off as soon as put on.
Don’t know the house, age, condition etc, so planned to be there all afternoon.

Turned up, tools out. Was shown the board… dual rcd, only upstairs lights mcb is off. Rcd held.

The house was fairly modern, the only upstairs was above the kitchen and contained the master bedroom, landing, big bathroom and a walk in cupboard/ dressing room. All in all about 20 downlights across the 3 areas. All halogen 35W.

Something, possibly instinct, took me straight to the bathroom. Took down the fitting above the shower… seemed ok. Second light in bathroom, the cables were a charred mess. Had been sitting, touching the hot lamp for so many years with insulation over the top.

Took off the switch… disconnected the outgoing cable to the bathroom. Everything else now testing clear, bathroom lights low across L and E.

I’ve left the bathroom disconnected, and got the rest of the upstairs working.
Will be going back with new fittings for the bathroom and LED lamps for the rest.

An unknown duration repair job was diagnosed within 10 minutes of entering the house.
Could have been a minefield, but turned out a lot simpler than first thought.

 

[pirate]

Nice to hear about a diagnostic job going well! More like this please!

 

[7029 dave]

Fault finding some hate it some love it.

 

[sunray]

Certainly makes a pleasant change

Most of my work for 10-15 years was control panel build/repair and invariably I'd only be able to do one job a day.
One complaining of MCB's tripping was unusually within 2 miles of home, left home 0750 quicky established some additional kit had been added, typical of a jobbing electrician not familiar with control panel work it was a right mess. I made the decision to add additional MCBs and terminals, trip to wholesaler for more Sneider MCB's and home for marching terminals, added the extras, tidied the additional wiring and home by 0950. It was on a day rate PO and Mrs Sunrays birthday so we went out to lunch.

Very rare it goes like that.

 

[mainline]

For me, there are occasions when finding a fault and saying about it can have long term disastrous consequences.

I'm talking about the wife's cooking.

 

[sunray]

For me, there are occasions when finding a fault and saying about it can have long term disastrous consequences.

I'm talking about the wife's cooking.

You too? I thought I was in a unique position