No lights but no trip on rcd either

[lostsoul]

Hello, I hope someone can help with a confusing problem. Got up this morning to find I had no lights in any room in our bungalow and the trip in the rcd has not tripped. We have an extension to the bungalow and lights are ok there. Everything else in the house is ok, sockets, cooker, garage etc.
I fitted a new light fitting in the kitchen a few weeks ago and the wiring from the attic was very tight (little free play) but its worked fine since fitting. All lights were working fine last night. Could it be the actual trip in the rcd is faulty or could it be a wiring problem related to the new fitting in the kitchen? Apart from that I can't think what else it could be.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Probably a problem related to the wiring of the new light. If the "tight" cable has pulled free, and the kitchen light is the first one on the circuit for the original building then it could knock out all of the lights.

BTW - an RCD is one type of trip, MCB is another, an RCBO is a 3rd. They all live inside consumer units. When you say "the trip in the rcd has not tripped" I assume you mean that the MCB in the CU has not tripped?

 

[lostsoul]

Many thanks for your prompt reply ban-all-sheds. I'll take another look at the light fitting in the kitchen and in the attic.
I'm not familiar with all the terminology but I assume the "box" that houses all these trip switches is the CU. It's made by Wylex with a sticker stating 100mA trip RCD. All the individual trip switches are marked with NB and then their respective amp rating.

 

[Iggifer]

and presumably all of the smaller switches are up?

 

[lostsoul]

Yes. All of them.

 

[lostsoul]

Problem solved. Loose earth wire in kitchen light fitting. Many thanks again for the help and pointing me in the right direction

 

[davelx]

Problem solved. Loose earth wire in kitchen light fitting. Many thanks again for the help and pointing me in the right direction

Not so fast! A loose earth wire would not stop the lights from working unless it made contact with one of the live conductors, in which case the RCD should trip. So there must be something else wrong somewhere!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

But a loose wire which should be an earth but which has been dangerously (as in really, very, dangerously) repurposed as a live conductor can.

 

[JohnW2]

Problem solved. Loose earth wire in kitchen light fitting. Many thanks again for the help and pointing me in the right direction

Did you tighten anything other than the earth connection? As others have said, a loose 'earth' wire would not result in lights not working, unless something very dangerous was going on and it were being used for something other than earth.

Kidn Regards, John

 

[davelx]

But a loose wire which should be an earth but which has been dangerously (as in really, very, dangerously) repurposed as a live conductor can.

Indeed. I think we need a good quality, close up and correctly focussed picture of the connections at that light fitting. TURN OFF THE POWER at the CU before you open it up again! Use a proper camera, ideally with a macro setting, not a phone camera, which will not be able to give a well focussed close-up.