New kitchen, live earth fault!! | Page 4 | on ElectriciansForums

Discuss New kitchen, live earth fault!! in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

J

Jeff.wd

Hi.. We have just had a new kitchen fitted, a few sockets moved, led lights, new supply for the electric oven and a rcd board fitted.
They told us they had checked the supply before they started and everything was fine, we knew to meet regs the board needed replacing, during installation the kitchen fitter drilled through a cable, getting a large flash but no fuses had blown (still the old board at this point) he told us straightaway and said he would get the electrician to check it, when the electricians returned to finish the kitchen and fit the board they told us the cable was fine and they had crimped it, ( would that mean removing some of the plaster and conduit to access the cable, in order to crimp it.)
The next day when the gas/plumber was fitting the new gas hob, he was getting tingling shocks from the gas pipe, when we plugged the hob into the socket for the ignition, (with the socket switched off), it tripped a rcd on the new board, we spoke to the electrician and he was convinced we had a faulty hob, he told us to try another appliance in that socket, we tried a hairdryer and it worked fine with nothing tripping. We then plugged the hob in and all appeared okay, over the weekend my partner received several shocks from the metal sockets above the worktops, we informed the electrician and he said he would come after the weekend.
On arrival he thought it would be a short visit and easily sorted, after 4 hours of trying to diagnose the fault, we now have been told that there is 80 volts leaking via earth to the bonding, they said the kitchen is testing and okay and the downstairs/kitchen ring is okay through the hallway, once they test in the lounge they pick the fault up there? They left saying they would phone colleagues and technical teams for ideas.
They are coming back next week to try and solve the problem, they said the conclusion is either a pressure fault or possibly a badly wired plug on a appliance?
Now my thoughts, all cables from the main board in the garage run up to the ceiling cavity, I presume the feed and return for the downstairs/kitchen ring, will come down from the ceiling go under the floorboards and return else where, the cable that was drilled through, comes from the ceiling going directly down the wall (no sockets etc) then under the floorboards,I asked them what the cable that was, they said it is not part of the kitchen ring, I can't think that it can be anything else other than part of the downstairs ring? Would drilling into that cable possibly cause a surge, resulting in a fault some where on the downstairs ring?
They want to charge us for diagnosing and repairing,unless it was caused by the work in the kitchen!!
Many thanks for any help/advice or guidance.

Cheers Jeff.
 
Thank very much for all your help and advice, these lads genuinely want to resolve the problem, although some critical and concerning comments, I will show them this thread, a friend kindly suggested posting on here for independent thoughts and advice.
Please keep posting more thoughts and comments.

In all honesty, the lads who genuinely want to resolve this problem shouldn't of been touching electrics in the first instance.
You should pay for a registered Electrician to come out and find the issues, put them right and then you should counter charge.
 
Is it just me or is the r2 for the RFCs too low, measuring bonding or a fault or ... And the R1+R2 for the RFCs (neatly typed in the R1+R1 column ...) is too high ?

I would be interested to compare actual readings with those on the cert.

Wonder what the scope or description of works says on the first page?
 
They probably did not mention the neutral to earth fault as the schdule does not have a box for N/E insulation test results.
Wonder why the shower is on a 5 sec dis ?
Type (Type )MCB s theses must be new!

On a serious note putting the up sockets on the non RCD side of the board is unaccepable and fobbing you off saying badly wired plug ,they new the fault was there when or if they tested (might of been RCD not holding test when energised) as all plugs etc should of been removed for testing!

Cash in hand or whatever method of payment the elctrician has changed the CU and has to do this as per the current regulations!

A few tests prior to the CU being changed would of identified any IR problems and I wonder if the house has a borrowed neutral what with both lighting ccts on the same RCD.

A picture of the inside of the consumer unit would be good!

I do hope this issue is resolved sooner rather than later let us know!
 
@mhar - When filling out test sheets, it asks for the max permitted value as stated by the BS7671 not the adjusted value for temp' compensation that the onsite guide gives you.
Hi DW and MHAR - These days I put a clarifying comment in case Inspector Clouseau wants to look. Hopefully readers are aware of the need for the 2 values. ;)
Cheeky Comment : As the OSG values seem calculated by applying BYB Appendix 14 to Table 41.3, l guess you could say it was the max value from BYB ?
 
The fact that the test results bear almost no relation to what is installed and written on the consumer unit is very suspicious.

The fact there is a neutral-earth fault on the upstairs sockets may mean that any leakage could be passing through the earth bar of the consumer unit and then passing along the bonding cable and onto the gas pipe. We don't know if the consumer unit is properly earthed do we?

I hope this gets sorted :)
 
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