light cicuit blown?

[mazdaman]

Ihave only very basic electrical knowledge but hope you can help. A bulb blew in the upstairs bathroom this am and tripped the mcb, I replaced the bulb and reset the mcb but now have no lights at all upstairs. All other circuits are ok, the only upstairs light is the landing which is on a dual switch at the bottom of the stairs, however that dosent work when the mcb is off for the upstairs circuit. Is it likely to be a faulty mcb? Any suggestions welcome.

[securespark]

No, it's not going to be the mcb, because when you reset it, the landing light comes on.

You need to obtain a multimeter & check the wiring leaving the landing light. You may have a break somewhere.

[luminaire]

Are you sure you reset the RCD switch and just the MCB for that circuit?

[mazdaman]

I reset the mcb and when that didnt work reset the main switch, I was hoping that it was just the mcb but obviously not looks like I ll have to get someone in as I m not happy messing with things I dont understand , thanks for the advice

[luminaire]

mazdaman wrote:

I reset the mcb and when that didnt work reset the main switch, I was hoping that it was just the mcb but obviously not looks like I ll have to get someone in as I m not happy messing with things I dont understand , thanks for the advice

Would you be competent enough to try say swapping over the 6A MCBs?
Because if you were able to use another MCB on that circuit and it worked ok, then you would know the problem was a faulty MCB.
It's often a process of elimination, starting with the easiest thing to eliminate first.
But don't do it unless you are completely confident.

[IJWS15]

Are you sure the landing light is fed from the upstairs circuit - try switching off the downstairs MCB and see if it goes off.

May help the fault finding.

[davelx]

Not uncommon for upstairs landing light to be fed from downstairs lighting circuit if on two-way switching. Beware of a borrowed neutral when working on the circuit -check everything really is dead with a multimeter.

[industryspark]

if the landing light goes out when the upstairs mcb is turned off then its likely the light is on the upstairs mcb. as suggested though, turn off the downstairs mcb and see if the landing light stays on. this should tell you whats what.

lights tend to be wired from one to the other, ie.

landing - toilet - bathroom - bedroom 1 -bedroom 2 and so on.

it may be that a connection has come loose somewhere along the 'chain'. you could try dropping ceiling roses off to see if theres anything obvious wrong visually (turn off power when doing this though)

if there isnt you'l probably need to be competent with a multimeter to trace whats going where.

[Sarahspark]

All the clues lead to the fact there could be a loose connection in the landing ceiling rose (or possible damage to cable between landing and rest of circuit) This assumes that the landing light is the first on the circuit from the symptoms you have given.
As others have said if nothing is obvious then you will need to be familiar with the use of a multimeter to trace through and ensure everything is dead before commencing.If you are not sure then seek help of an electrician!

Sarah

[mazdaman]

Thanks everybody for your advice, I rang an local electrician and he suggested the same, i.e check the ceiling roses, which i did and found a loose wire, problem solved thanks again