Tell us about your faults!

[kung]

Hi ALL
Just thought id put this one up for all those faults we find.
heres one to kick it off !
Domestic RCD tripped and wouldnt reset cause was a blown low energy light bulb.
There you go now for yours !

 

[needasparks]

On another note.
I had a coldcall to investigate an immersion timer not working, turns out loads of equipment in the house don't last very long and tv's, phone router etc. so checked immersion and neutral is live ! check brand new cu installed last year by a DI and tails are in the mainswitch the wrong way round so whole house reversed polarity.
I then wondered how he got test readings then realised he must have done them in his lounge rather than hers.
These Electrical Trainee have to be stopped before they kill someone. wish i could name and shame.

 

[mspms]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I was testing between live and earth.

 

[Richard Burns]

Not really a fault but I was doing some wiring on a bunglaow and realised there was a supply to the garage, go and have a look and there is an RCD and 2way CU fed from 10mm T&E, OK no problem; hang on a minute there is no 10mm T&E from the supply, trace it back in the loft and 1m from the CU they have spurred off the socket ring (with a broken junction box)! For the price of a junction box they could have bought the extra metre of 10mm and used one of the four spare ways in the CU. Who knows why.
Oh and the lights were wired in black sheathed and insulated single core cable, again who knows why!

 

[needasparks]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I was testing between live and earth.

There lays your problem. If you have less than 240 Live to cpc then it can only be no earth potential on cpc so if you say the cpc is present it can only have become disconnected. The rcd will only trip if there is a fault to earth, you have no fault just no earth.
Lights down one at a time and check connections and see where it stops using telectix suggestion of long wandering lead from MET and check R2 till you find it. good luck.

 

[mspms]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Many thanks needasparks. I will have to look at all light connections again. Just to confirm that i am looking for a disconnected earth somewhere in the circuit?

 

[Knobhead]

yes Tony my mate got a -------ing doing same on Blackpool prom with bicarb I think it was, got fed up of them trying to knick his chips,apparently they are a protected species,the gulls not the chips lol

That will just cure the seagull’s indigestion from eating the chips!
Carbide is a bit more spectacular (explosive)! Just watch out for the flying debris, makes a right mess on your jacket.

 

[willf]

Another DIY mess. The architrave switch is running the cupboard lights fed off the socket next to it. Neutral connections in CU barely hand tight and only one leg of the ring connected. The other leg is in the JB outside of the board. Guess he didn't know where it went, lol. Loads of other probs, too many to list.

 

[kung]

See what you mean buddy ! also like termination of what looks like a 10 in pic 2 and where the heck is that single from the unswitched double going ?

 

[willf]

See what you mean buddy ! also like termination of what looks like a 10 in pic 2 and where the heck is that single from the unswitched double going ?

That 10mm was going direct to a shower. When I say direct I mean straight to the shower with no isolator!! The cable out of the unswitched socket was feeding some other cupboard lights, nice!

 

[kung]

Very nice !

 

[garysparky1]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I was doing an IR test and could'nt get a high read checked around and i had'nt taken out the outside light bulb schoolboy error!

 

[ash_s3]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Couple of photos off the phone ive taken over the last couple of months, some proper shoddy work.

£10.7M Council offices, built in 2004 - this is exactly as i found it!

£28M Theatre built in 2009

Removed one light fitting to find all this behind

Removed one 2G socket to find about 4ft of singles in the wall cavity

No cover over terminals in ceiling void, Cord grip not used, CPC not connected!

FP200 dogged into a 13A plugtop, cord grip had caused L and CPC to short. FP200 fed a 2G socket!!

£3M Fire HQ refurbishment - Found this in trunking!

 

[GT1]

I take it the overheated neutral in number seven is the shower..!
lol

 

[Robospark]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

How about this one - Got a call from a guy complaining that when he had a shower, one of his rings on his cooker started to glow!!!

After a bit of poking about found that the neutral in the main switch was open circuit when the switch was on! And that the cooker ring had an earth fault when switched on - in fact I also found earth faults at two switches as well. Both heating up!

So the earth faults were providing a return path for the whole installation. Mucho dangerous!

 

[Guest111]

worked for a company doing lofts and went to a job where one of the lads(not a spark) had wired the loft light into a jb and when he switched it on the florry strobed, he also found the bathroom light glowed dimly but when you turned bathroom light on loft light went out, he was convinced wrongly that it was a fault with existing wiring,.took me about 2 mins to work out what he had done.answers on a postcard please lol.