upstairs lights have tripped out

[oolewis]

hi guys,
this is my first time here so please be kind....

last night my brother turned on his bedroom light and has done somin....

we went into the garage and switched the fuse switch back over and the upstairs lights still remain off. My dad has said that he has swapped the down stairs and the upstairs fuses over to see if it was that but they still did not want to work.......

Is this an often problem for people????? Does anyone have any other ideas for me to try out.....

Kindest regards

steve.

 

[bathjobby]

last night my brother turned on his bedroom light and has done somin....

I think you have answered your own question. I assume this 'somin', we are supposed to interpret as 'the light didn't come on and the mcb tripped' ?
Switch off the power, take out the lamp and check the connections in the light switch and lamp holder and replace the lamp if necessary.

 

[pdcelec]

Sounds like a shorted lamp to me. I doubt if the wires have moved around in the switch or fitting on their own. Are you giving us the full story?

 

[oolewis]

hey guys thanks for the replies,

none of the upstairs lights work, my brother said he heard a popping sound as he turned on the lights, I can only gues this was the bulbs going. Other than that i have no other information to give. He has swaped the fuses around so that the one for the upstairs was working on the down stairs and vise versa, again the down worked and the up did not.

I take it this means that something has gone wrong with the wireing.... can this just suddely go ?

 

[saxton]

yes, it can

 

[oolewis]

oh damn it, that will probabily mean ripping up floor boards in the loft then.......

Dad will be pleased..... so do you think I should conact a local electricain for a job like this?

 

[Steve]

you say none of the upstairs lights work. Is the MCB in the OFF position? When flicked on, does it just throw itself off again?

1. Have you removed the bulbs in the offending light? And tried the MCB again?

If no joy, and you feel confident, then 2. Open up the light fitting and look in there for crossed/loose wires. (wiring diagrams in sticky thread at top of forum)

If no sign of crossed wires, 3. you will have to get into the loft and check out the junction boxes for crossed wires (if any).

THEN call an electrician.

 

[mapj1]

Unless you, or your father or brother can understand wiring diagrams and loop through rose lighting wiring, then withouttrying to patoniose, you should best seek outside help.
Do either of you own or know how to use a simple multimeter for example? Are they familer with the layout of the wiring in the building?
If the answer to both those quastions is 'yes' we may be able to talk you through it, but we need a lot more info, and more correctly described.

For example you still have not told us what happened on exchanging fuses - do you now have 2 blown fuses, or just one, or indeed were both fuses intact - that is the point of swapping them.. Swapping them but not drawing any conclusion does not help isolate the fault.

What will probably need to be done is to open up the wiring to the affected circuit, and break a connection half way round and decide if the fault is before or after this point. In the limb with the fault, another deliberate break is made, dividing the half into 2 quarters, to see if the fault is before or after this break. Usually in 3 or 4 hops the fault can be be narrowed down to one or 2 lengths of cable and a couple of fittings, which then get replaced.
The labour intensive bit is lifting floors, moving furniture etc to get access.

How old is the house, how old is the wiring - could it be mice chewing the cable, or somthing heavy in the loft crushing the cable?

just ideas to set the ball rolling.

 

[oolewis]

hey guy,

thanx alot for all the help we managed to work out that there was power from the main box. we also found that upstairs in the loft were two other speorate (spelling?) fuse boxes. in one of the light switches in the room the cable had touched the casing and blown on of the fuse in the loft....

luckely only a few of the boards were removed.......

 

[ban-all-sheds]

 

[Steve]

hey guy,

thanx alot for all the help we managed to work out that there was power from the main box. we also found that upstairs in the loft were two other speorate (spelling?) fuse boxes. in one of the light switches in the room the cable had touched the casing and blown on of the fuse in the loft....

luckely only a few of the boards were removed.......

that last bit sounds unusual. What do you mean?

And why, when you had made a typo/spelling error, did you not go back and correct it, rather mention the fact after it??

And you didn't have to call a spark we saved you £££££s!