Lost power to my garage when installing a new light

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11 Jun 2012
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Location
Hampshire
Country
United Kingdom
I've learnt a lot from this site but never posted a question before (so forgive me - and I stil ahve much more to learn, as you'll now hear). An electrician installed power to my garage and ran an armoured cable from a Wiley consumer unit in my house to a Contactum RCD (http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CPR026P.html) in the garage. I built a lean-to shed next to the garage and drilled a hole through the connecting wall so i could run a cable from the junction box feeding the strip light to anotehr light in the shed (where I also attempted to install a swictyh - buit obviously did this wrong). When I put the power back on the garage RCD tripped. I put it back up again and the MCB in the house consumer unit tripped (but the house electrics remained fine). I disconnected my obviously faulty wiring of the additional light and switch but I now have no power at all in the garage and the test button on the garage RCD does nothing. I've turned off and on the house MCB feeding the garage as well as the contactum unit also but nothing (no power). Have I damaged the house MCB?, or broken the Contactum rcd in the garage or both? Ciould I have damage the armoured cabling ?(I hope not as that is now securely under a patio I layed. Any help to put things back to how they were before I get an electrician to do what I obviously messed up, would be much appreciated. If it is simple and I could do it then that would be even better. Sorry for being so stupid, and hope you can help.
thanks
 
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Some RCDs have to have their lever pushed right down and then back up to reset them. Just pushing them back up does not reset them.
 
Have you tried pushing the lever on the MCB in the house all the way off and then back off again, and also the same with the garage RCD. Some just need resetting.

You might have damaged the MCB or the RCD, but this is unusual. The chances of damaging the cable are very rare indeed.
 
Thanks for the quick replies (much appreciated). I've just done what you both kindly advised but nothing has changed. I unscrewed the front cover off the Conatctum RCD in the garage to see if there was any charring of the cables - but they looked fine. I don't know how to remove the MCBs to see if they are ok - I guess they aren't like the old plug in fuse replacements). The test button on the garage RCD doesn't do anything so does this mean that no power is getting through from the house consumer unit? I think it is a Wilex 20 amp MCB?
 
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What needs to be done to fix it is to use a multimeter to trace where there is power and where there isn't starting at the input terminal to the MCB in the house CU and working along the circuit. This should reveal where the problem is. Most likely either the MCB in the house CU or the RCD in the garage CU have failed.

If you are not absoloutely confident in your ability to use a multimeter safely on live mains electrics I would advise getting an electrician in to do this for you.
 
Many thanks. You are right. I'll let you know how it goes ... it's probably for the best as now I'll have to sell whats in the garage to pay for the electrian (so there'll be no need a shed after all :>)
 

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