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John, Thanks for the advice... OK, I was just going to turn off the MCB - is there a reason this isn't enough? When the CU was changed (2004, of course!) I put in a couple of sockets on the downstairs ring near it, one on each leg of the ring, so I can work from there rather than having to...

I get on very well with my neighbour (the other half of the semi-detached pair) but he's away at the moment so can't turn his power off. There are no cellars, just the traditional suspended wooden floor on brick plinths. To get to my wiring someone would have to drill through the party wall...

Securespark, Thanks for your message: :lol: While I could well be going mad, I have had a good hunt round, but I'll try again just in case... I have none of those... The shed is powered by a plug-in cable - unplugged for the test, no change. It's the downstairs ring, and I am certain...

Thanks for the thoughts, chaps... I don't *think* I missed any sockets - there aren't many in the first place (1 or 2 in each room 1930s style - the suspected 1970s rewire didn't add any, and mostly didn't even fit double sockets) but I will have another scout round just in case. "Something...

I'd been a bit worried about my electricity bill, so got one of the monitors which has a current-sensor clipped around the main Line cable to the Consumer Unit, and sends its data by radio (bluetooth?) to a display. Well, it's showing that I never consume less than 700W, and turning off the...

"Pedantry" :lol: :lol: :lol:

Stone me! I wonder if the moron who did that could be charged with attempted murder?

Folks, Apart from all the other problems with this idea, would using blue "Arctic" cable get over the exposure problem? As I understand it, it's designed for outdoor use. Cheers, Howard

Yes, I believe they're in The Far East - that's a safe distance from here! :-) Cheers, Howard

Oh yes, it's the usual way of doing things here (I'm in New York at the moment). And the standard way of doing wiring is twist-together and put one of those screw-on caps ("acorns"?) over it. Just had local sparkies replace the ceiling fan/light unit here in my girlfriend's dining room (I...

In my girlfriend's house in New York (where I am now) it's amazing - just turning on the coffee maker (850W) dims the lights. And when the microwave is running (1.5kW) the voltage on the circuit drops by 9V - and remember there's only 110V to start with! But then their wiring regulations all...

I agree. Nicholas, you mentioned that there are scorch marks on the socket's face, which shows it's been overheated. The heat will have been carried by the live pin into the socket, so it's very likely to have been well overheated inside where you can't see it. This may have compromised...

Well you were never allowed to touch the network's property (everything before and including the meter) but anything beyond that wasn't restricted. And it still isn't (in the sense that you can do anything as long as you follow the Building Control route). Of course, you have always been...

What's the "clean Earth" they talk about - it seems to cost a quid extra, and I'm intrigued as to what it consists of! Cheers, Howard

Indeed, if he'd put Neutral into L2 and there's something wrong with the fusing (the nail may be rusty, giving high resistance! :-) ), it could have been cooking for a few seconds before he switched it on, but he didn't notice until he switched it "off" again. Cheers, Howard

I disagree! I think the continuity beeper is priceless, and I wouldn't buy a meter without one. If you're trying to decide which wire is which in a bundle, you haven't got enough hands to hold both probes and the meter and look at it while you probe the wires. A quick beep solves it...

Glad you got it working! This sort of thing happens fairly often - probably getting the equipment to do a test caused it to wake up and start working. Cheers, Howard

There is only one pair of wires from you back to the exchange - they are shared by the phone and broadband using different frequencies (hence the filters to separate them). The most likely local cause of phone OK/Broadband knackered, is interference - I had a client whose phone line picked up...

That's what you'd expect with 2-way switching. the single from one switch would come from the Live, the single from the other switch would go to one side of the light, and the black & red pair would connect the L1, L2 of both switches (you can look this up in the Sticky messages at the top of...

I'd like to know more about this - if they were part of the ring, did you keep the two parts connected together, or did you isolate them from each other? If the latter, then this is a Bad Thing! Because if so you have broken the ring, and everything will still work so you won't know anything...