Discuss 400v at Lights in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Reaction score
24
I was sent to a building as there were no lights in the lift motor room at the top... Got there, opened 2 x fluorescents and tested for voltage at them and it showed 400v, opened the light switch... got the same... So my initial thought was i had lost a neutral somewhere...

The lift motor room is supplied from a Distribution Board, the three phases come from the DB to a switch isolator, from there it goes to another switch isolator before finally going in to the Board at the top.

So I went to the local fuse board in the motor room ( 3 banks of 4 fuses, each supplied by a separate phase) isolated the board, pulled the appropriate fuse, re-energised board and tested at incoming end, again, 400v between phases, 400v between each phase to neutral, same to earth and 240v between neutral and earth.

So then i'm thinking ok, I've lost a neutral and it's shorting to earth somewhere, traced every single cable associated with that board and the supply for it, no obvious fault anywhere... Went back and re-isolated the board thinking I must have missed something, pulled every single fuse in the board and went to test again, this time i got 0v across the entire board between phases and to neutral and earth.

Eventually I narrowed it down to a particular circuit on the blue phase, when it doesn't have a fuse in it, the board is dead, however when it's got a fuse in it, the entire board reads 400v and 240v between neutral to earth... I've traced that circuit to a dead end looking for some sort of fault on it, Disconnected everything associated with it looking for any sort of fault to cause that amount of overload and... Nothing?

Basically hoping someone may have came across something similar and can point me in the correct direction?
 
Last edited:
I must admit, This is a new fault as I was sent to relamp the fluorescents 2 weeks ago! Boss thought I was at it and hadn't relamped them when the email came through saying there were no lights up there!
 
It is lost neutral. That is why 400V across terminal at light fittings. There is 230V between neutral and earth because it has lost its connection to neutral and is actually phase to earth via connected load. Shut it down and methodically dead test to find lost neutral.
 
It is lost neutral. That is why 400V across terminal at light fittings. There is 230V between neutral and earth because it has lost its connection to neutral and is actually phase to earth via connected load. Shut it down and methodically dead test to find lost neutral.
Spot on, it has to be.
 

Reply to 400v at Lights in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Similar Threads

Hi all.. Bit of a nightmare afternoon,, testing a caravan park TP&N panel board IR testing while board isolated before returning power (merlin...
Replies
5
Views
942
I'm in the middle of preparing a quote for installing 12 x 3Kw and 4 x 2Kw halogen heaters in a church. The system design was provided by a...
Replies
27
Views
1K
Hello all. So I am sure the expertise on this forum will be able to decode this very easily. But it has completely baffled me. I'm in training so...
Replies
14
Views
645
Hello All So I'm not long out of my college days and unfortunately I didn't have a lot of exposure to three phase and commercial wiring systems...
Replies
32
Views
3K
5 single phases to one huge property. Backup generator which can take about 106 amps split between 2 phases - 1 phase will be wired through...
Replies
2
Views
559

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

YOUR Unread Posts

This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by untold.media Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock