Fault (DIY wired house)

[p11jor]

Went to house to day to look at putting a new board in.....

Quick look about noticed that every socket was run from a jb screwed to the skirting board then run up to patress's in capping with a couple of grey 2.5 t&e clips......defo a DIY job in here.

Looked and there was a 17th board in place asked my question why he wants a new one.....he said because a breaker dosnt work. I tried it and it takes out both sides of the Rcds.......took the lid off explored the rats nest and the nuetral is in the correct bar....In the breaker causing the fault is a 6mm cable, this must feed everything in the kitchen as the whole kitchen is now dead with this breaker not being able to operate...lights & appliances, it is a extension the kitchen so my initial though was the 6mm to a submain but there is nothing in site....i have arranged to call in to fault find tomorrow afternoon, anyone had this before? Or could suggest a fault I should be looking for? My plan was to megger the 6mm to see if any low meg and just work from there.

Cheers

 

[somersetsparks]

sounds like a nicked neutral to me but thats just a best guess!!

 

[trev]

It could be anything really, is it possible for you to remove all the socket fronts and switches etc then you can test cable by cable. It's going to be time consuming but there's probably not much else you can do

 

[p11jor]

Nice one fellas! Our diyer man rekond it was a power fault (whatever one of them is) I suspect myself there is probley a spare taken from the kitchen to living room which is on our other side of the rcd.....noticed also the lighting was in singles so the borrowed nuetral could well be from this......

 

[trev]

Oh of course, a power fault. Fancy you not knowing what one of them is.
Don't you just hate it when some knacker buggers up a job then tells you how to fix it

 

[p11jor]

I know yer!!....he was going in about fixing the boiler in there aswell.....god help the new tenants!! Ile post the photos of these sockets!!!! Better take me power fault tester with me tommorow !

 

[bigbaddave]

Im after one of those testers, Do megger do them and if so what code?

 

[p11jor]

Im after one of those testers, Do megger do them and if so what code?

Its a MEGGER.5.week.wonder.1553

Thats the latest line in power fault meters think it's got the Bluetooth on this one

 

[Welchyboy]

If both rcds are opening you have either a cross connected circuit bridging both rcd sides, or a neutral on the wrong bar

By the sound of this job probably both

Good luck

 

[StuSpiers]

Agree^^^

Borrowed Live (or borrowed neutral as it is commonly known) but in fact the live supply from one circuit is borrowed over to another this usually happens in lighting circuits

 

[Octopus]

Sounds like a nice little earner... hope the customer can pay!

 

[p11jor]

It's a sham of a job, I think that will be the 1st thing I do is put this 6mm onto the other side of the rcd & nuetral bar. Then suggest I carry out a full conditional report

Cheers fellas

 

[Engineer54]

Sounds to me, like yet another example of how DIY'ers are keeping Jobbing electricians in work!! lol!!! Still want to Ban the sale of electrical goods to Joe Public?? lol!!

 

[topcat]

Good to see some one is trying to keep sparks in work good luck hope you sort it out why do people mess with things they dont understand.

 

[p11jor]

Cheers guys sorted this "power fault" ...... He had come of the immersion to the ring which diffrent side of rcd , when I asked him why he had done this he explained "that he needed too because of the KWs the immersion was drawing he wanted to safely back it up with "extra power" from the ring. I could t contain my laughter!!

 

[topcat]

He had good sound grasp of what he was doing then

 

[p11jor]

Scary that he had the front of the combi boiler off tinkering around with some plastics looking spanner!

 

[Paul.M]

plastics looking spanner!

Is that the customer or the tool he used?

 

[p11jor]

Is that the customer or the tool he used?

His tool resembled him!.....how do you post photos on here you gots to see his wiring!!

 

[p11jor]