Faults

[crazyelec]

i have wired in a ring circuit and there is power there, but it doesnt work when anything is plugged in. another fault is that the landing light doesnt work, this is a 2 way on stairs. problem is, it doesnt work until the down stairs lights mcb is switched off and upstairs is on. again if the down stairs is on and the upstairs is off it works fine, but when both breakers are on the landing light doesnt work. im thinking this maybe to do with polarity on the meter tails.

has anyone any ideas they could point me in the right direction please.

 

[Darkwood]

You say you have power to the ring but how have you measured this? Do you have L/N/E at the socket?
Then you say you think its a polarity issue Why havent you just checked polarity at the c.u. which i suspect isnt the issue here.What are you using to test the circuits?

 

[crazyelec]

You say you have power to the ring but how have you measured this? Do you have L/N/E at the socket?
Then you say you think its a polarity issue Why havent you just checked polarity at the c.u. which i suspect isnt the issue here.What are you using to test the circuits?

yes i have tested each socket and have 230v at each point. i have borrowed a multifunction tester which is a robin kts. havent however checked mains polarity so thought this maybe the case.

 

[Darkwood]

yes i have tested each socket and have 230v at each point. i have borrowed a multifunction tester which is a robin kts. havent however checked mains polarity so thought this maybe the case.

Your multifuntion tester should have indicated a polarity problem what i suspect is that this is a busbar clamping issue, visually look underneath your mcb,s rcbo's, mainswitch to see that the clamp isnt on the wrong side of the copper, if so this would show you a voltage in some cases but under load the poor connection would break down.

 

[Steve D]

Could the socket fault be that the line is continuous but there is no neutral ? You'd still get 230V to earth when testing but without a neutral then equipment wouldn't work if plugged in.

 

[Darkwood]

Appreciate the thanks but may i ask if this was the problem, just been nosey.

 

[crazyelec]

yes it was, all works fine now. no problems at all. cheers again.

 

[m4tty]

nice one Darkwood spot on there .... virtual fault finding

 

[Darkwood]

nice one Darkwood spot on there .... virtual fault finding

Its a problem with some makes of consumer units that its possible to put the wire or busbar pin on the wrong side of the clamp and not realise as its underneath eyeline, the better made boards have blocking sheilds as part of their devices so you cant do this, i know a lot of sparkies that have fallen foul of this including myself but its one of those mistakes you only make once unless you got a bad memory.
Just get into the routine of visually inspecting the clamping after you have fitted main switch and mcb's/rcbo's as its a common cause of heat damage and burn outs which can be easily avoided.