Apologies if this is a stupid question or has been asked many times before, but here goes.
For at least the last 16 years, I have had a Consumer Unit labelled IECOS 66-6H with various switches such as "Upstairs Lights", "Downstairs Lights" etc.
When a light bulb blows, for example in the downstairs living room, (usually at the point of attempting to switch the light on) then the "Downstairs Lights" switch on the Consumer Unit is tripped to the off position causing none of the downstairs lights to have any power. This is simple to remedy. I replace the faulty bulb with a new one and flick the switch on the Consumer Unit back to the on position. All the downstairs lights are now working again.
However, my problem is this. Out of the blue, the switch tripped to the off position (ie not whilst attempting to turn a light on). As far as I know, none of the bulbs are faulty. When I try to flick the switch back to the on position it won't stay there and immediately drops back to the off position. All the other switches are happily in the on position, so my mains is working as are the upstairs lights.
This has happened once before (about a year ago) and I had no downstairs lights for a couple of days, but remarkably it let me put it back to the on position eventually. I'm not aware of any changes to the circumstances - it just seemed to let me do it after having a couple of days' rest!
Can anyone advise what the problem might be and what I can do to rectify it?
Thanks in advance.
For at least the last 16 years, I have had a Consumer Unit labelled IECOS 66-6H with various switches such as "Upstairs Lights", "Downstairs Lights" etc.
When a light bulb blows, for example in the downstairs living room, (usually at the point of attempting to switch the light on) then the "Downstairs Lights" switch on the Consumer Unit is tripped to the off position causing none of the downstairs lights to have any power. This is simple to remedy. I replace the faulty bulb with a new one and flick the switch on the Consumer Unit back to the on position. All the downstairs lights are now working again.
However, my problem is this. Out of the blue, the switch tripped to the off position (ie not whilst attempting to turn a light on). As far as I know, none of the bulbs are faulty. When I try to flick the switch back to the on position it won't stay there and immediately drops back to the off position. All the other switches are happily in the on position, so my mains is working as are the upstairs lights.
This has happened once before (about a year ago) and I had no downstairs lights for a couple of days, but remarkably it let me put it back to the on position eventually. I'm not aware of any changes to the circumstances - it just seemed to let me do it after having a couple of days' rest!
Can anyone advise what the problem might be and what I can do to rectify it?
Thanks in advance.