Hi all, I have a problem with upstairs power sockets (upstairs and downstairs lighting and downstairs sockets are all ok) The fuse for the upstairs just trips out and wont re-set. There is a dead short on the circuit somewhere....we have had problems with a mouse between the floor and ceiling and I suspect it has chewed through the cable insulation causing the short. Is there any way of tracing which part of the circuit has the problem section of cable without having to take up all of the floorboards rather than just the affected bit?
Tracing a faulty cable
- Thread starter Steve412L
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- chewed cable mouse
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Firstly: Is the tripping device an MCB or RCBO? Picture if you are not sure - just copy and paste.
If its a 32A ring its good news.
Hopefully there are no USB scckets upstairs
DIsconnect the wires from the CU. Prove you can see the fault with a normal electric meter on continuity (need to understand which 2 or the 3 wires are shorted or low resistance)
Then roughtly half way round the circuit (guess) split the circuit.
See which side the fault is on.
Keep splitting it down until you find the cable and disconnect it.
Then fit a 20 MCB to the CU and connect it back up
Hopefully there are no USB scckets upstairs
DIsconnect the wires from the CU. Prove you can see the fault with a normal electric meter on continuity (need to understand which 2 or the 3 wires are shorted or low resistance)
Then roughtly half way round the circuit (guess) split the circuit.
See which side the fault is on.
Keep splitting it down until you find the cable and disconnect it.
Then fit a 20 MCB to the CU and connect it back up
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Ok, that suggests there is a fault, either with the device because it has been supplying more than 16A for items plugged in - not really likely for upstairs circuit, OR
there is a fault between L & N or L & E which should be detectable with the meter using the method suggested above.
You could investigate the outside sockets first. Has anything happened out there?
Yes - as long as you have not overlooked something plugged in somewhere.
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Just spent 2 hours tracing a fault in a holiday home, DB was very precisely labelled, kitchen far wall, dishwasher, 2 x sockets, split the ring and traced the fault to the return leg back to the DB, pulled kickboards off as the cabling was under the units, all good, found the fault on towel rail in the bathroom above, all the other heaters are wired individually except that one
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