Emily-Elizabeth

Grrrrr....

For the last few days my electricity goes 'pop' and half my lights go off. I have to stumble to the kitchen and climb up to the high up cupboard to get to the switches in the white box and flick the one so it points the same way as all the others.

This has happened once or twice in the 8 months of living here, but since yesterday it has been happening by the minute!! No sooner do I switch the switch they all go 'pop' again.

Happened when I was in the shower this morning, and more time than I can count since I got home from work!!

Any clues why this started to happen??? Doing me head in!!!

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TeflonTom

there must be an electrical short, or some faulty wiring somewhere.... either that or you are over loading it

Emily-Elizabeth

The lights are flickering a lot lately

I can't see how I am overloading anything, I am not doing anything diffrently.

Is it possible that an animal nibbling through some wire would cause this?

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Lady Elanore

I think T-T is right, it’s probably an overload or a short somewhere.

Overloading could be due to things like- you have fan heaters and electric-oil radiators on that you wouldn’t normally have. A short could be many types of electrical items (sorry)

But you can isolate the problem……..

Firstly, if you look in the cupboard where the switch thingys are, have a look at the one that keeps tripping out and see if there is any identification as to which circuit in you house it is looking after. Perhaps it’s written on the inside of the lid that covers the box. If so, this will help the next bit………..

Switch off all (and I do mean all) the items that are powered by your mains electricity (tellys and fridges etc). If you know which circuit keeps tripping (see above) then start with those things on that circuit. Switch everything on one thing at a time and wait every time to see if your lights flicker or the relay trips out again. Keep going till your fault reoccurs. Basically the last thing that you switch back on that causes your problem, is probably (but not guaranteed) to be the fault. But it still could be that you have overloaded the circuit by having too many things on it. Heaters, hairdryers and things like that draw a lot of current and this can make your switches trip out.

If you do not find the offending item, then you must find an electrician as if your problem was an earthing one and the right conditions prevail, you could get a nasty shock one day. It could still be you have an intermittent supply problem due to all these gales and things disrupting your mains feed to the house of course.

Good luck

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Octygone

Emily sounds like a fault on that particular lighting circuit....if they are flickering as well it sounds like a short circuit which could very well be caused by mice or rats (it happens a lot in the country) .........if it's the actual wiring then you need an electrician in to find and repair the fault.....Im too far away to "pop over" and do it or I would have offered, ...

Have you altered anything on that lighting circuit recently? sometimes just changing a fitting will start something off like this.

Get an electrician in they should find the fault quickly and sort it.

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TKW

Do *all* the lights flicker, or just those on the half which flicker?

Don't ignore the possiblility of a faulty MCB

And finally, despite saying all that, I have to agree with Octygone - in your posision you're probably going to have to get a spark out. Do you rent, or own your home? If you rent then get on the 'phone to the landlord and let them sort it out

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Octavia 4x4

bengie

knackered light, knackered fan(if you have them), knackered mcb or knackered cable.

you definitly need a qualified man to go have a look emily, hope you rent the house as the bill could easily get quite high at *probably* £30-£50 and hour tracing a fault that could be under floor boards or in the roof. a fault like you could find in 2 mins if your lucky or i have been on a job all day just trying to sort out something like this and that didn't include the remdial work of getting it fixed.

if you rent then get on to the landlord asap and if he dithers about get a registered bloke in and tell him to bill the land lord

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WW_VRS

Is the shower electric as well?

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cheezemonkhai

Change the light bulbs as i had a short in an energy saver that caused this behaviour. As said could also be an MCB, or a loose connection on a cable etc, I'd have a check of the bulbs then get a spark out as you don't want to be zapping yourself.

Whatever you do, just remember that is a light is switched off that doesn't mean the lighting connection isn't still live so make sure the correct circuit is turned off in the main fuse box.

I would hope that an electric shower would not be on a lighting circuit

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Johnnyc

Exactly. MCB's and RCD's have a lifespan. They have sacrificial components and will eventually wear out through excessive tripping but this may also manifest itself in becoming oversensitive too.

Personally given your past rodent infestation, it's more likely to be a chewed/damaged cable or maybe water getting into an external lighting fitting.

Problems like this can be very difficult to diagnose and identify. My advice is to trace the fault as well as you can using the advice in this thread before getting an electrician in. Last year in a friends house i found the same problem was caused by a screw securing a wall light shorting out the supply cable . I'm not exactly an electrician but it took me about 30 minutes to find the fault yet 2 separate electricians had previously each spent several hours there and not resolved the problem. No offence guys

Energy saving light bulbs are great but if you are sticking with ordinary light bulbs, don't buy the 2 for 50p type. There's a reason they are so cheap. Build quality is often poor but more importantly they often don't have built-in fuses which blow when the element expires. This can cause mcb's/rcd's to trip or even cause the light bulb to explode.

Sorry i can't be of more help Emily. Hope you get it sorted.

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Johnny

"Americans have different ways of saying things. They say "elevator", we say "lift" ... they say "President", we say "stupid psychopathic git."

heresmo

Hi E-E. For all I do DIY stuff, I never mess with electrics. The sooner you get onto the landlord the better IMO. It's his responsibility to get an elecrician in to sort it.

Aside from possibly electrocuting yourself by fiddling about if there's a problem with the actual wiring, fusebox (whatever), you're also likely to fall in the dark climbing up to the fuse box. It's a no-brainer IMO Em - phone the landlord to get an electrician in.

FWIW a lot of electrical suppliers upgraded the main input box to the house (whatever that's called) to accommodate the greater usage these days. It might be worth asking the electrician if yours has been done, though an electrician on here can probably comment better on this aspect.

Regards
Mo

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Goochie

Can you get us a photo of the box where the switches keep tripping?

Would be easier to then see if it is an individual circuit that is tripping or the ELCB.

Either way theres not much anyone here can do to help - sorry.

postmanpat

we don't even have trip switches just good old fashioned fuse wire, this is a PITA when a bulb in the chandalier goes cos it can take the fuse with it Not really relavant to you tho sorry If you have screw in bulbs tho just have a quick wander round and make sure thay are all screwed in properly, as a loose one will flicker and possibly cause a trip.

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Goochie

Just a thought, Emily. We changed the old wire type fuse box in our house for a split lpad consumer unit with an ELCB.

Basically this means we have a super safe device that will "trip" if any electricity goes down the earth wire.

Ours was tripping regularly and taking out the sockets with it. Because of the split-load nature the lights stayed on though

We eventually tracked it down to a wiring fault in the plug on our toaster - we'd had it for years but not had a problem in the last house as it had a different style consumer unit.

If is happening regularly, unplug everything possible when not in use and see if it still happens.

TKW

I would *hope* that the wiring isn't arranged in such a way that 1/2 the lights could be taken out by an RCD tripping. Unless someone has a very amusing interporetation of "split load"


Needs a spark to see it.

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Octavia 4x4

cheezemonkhai

Upstairs and downstairs lighting circuits can often be separated.

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TKW

On a different RCD?

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Octavia 4x4

Octygone

Most I have put in is twelve lighting circuits in one house...kitchen alone had 2 so it is quite possible/desirable to have more than one circuit for the lights...at least you have some lighting if the other circuit goes off........

Sparks with an insulation tester should take about 5 minutes to tell wether it is the mcb or a fault on the circuit....finding the fault may take longer....but if all the lights on that circuit are turned off and it doesn't go out....should be easy to find

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bengie

flicker yes but it will never cause an mcb to trip as there is no fault present.

and jhonny i think you were just lucky mate i've done the same and had the same done to me on jobs where i have spent hours scrathing my head trying to find a fault and a colleague will walk in a point to something that i missed and thats where the fault was. it happens to everyone

a loose connection can make lights flicker and shorten the life of bulbs but it won't blow an mcb, for an mcb to trip everytime you turn it on means there is a fault of some sort.

emily does the trip simply not turn on or does it turn off with a bang and/or flash when it goes?

if it goes with a bang then there is definitly a fault of some sort on a cable or light fitting but now knowing you've had rodent problems then that is quite likely the cause.

best of luck and call a professional asap.

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owner of a skoda octavia 4xvrs3

flabio

Hi ,I have a similar problem, my bath isn't sealed very well to the wall. the shower is over the bath ,so if i'm not careful , the water from the shower can run down the wall behind the bath , under the floor boards and drips from the light fitting downstairs. I must get it fixed oneday

bengie

i'd say sooner rather than later personally

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owner of a skoda octavia 4xvrs3

Mil

I know what the problem is.


Emily is so pretty her car keeps trippin' on her.

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Octygone

Just hope everything is bonded get it sorted ASAP

Just a thought ...but EE hasn't been on here since she posted this yesterday

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bengie

steady on mil mate with posts like this anyone would think this is a dating site

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owner of a skoda octavia 4xvrs3

Mil

Thought I'd add a little humour to this thread.

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Milton Kyvernitis
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