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You mean a Variac? :-) Not synthesised, obviously, but it does precisely this job. I think a variable-output pure-sinewave invertor would be ridiculously expensive, and far too big to be useful in a domestic environment. Cheers, Howard

Did you confirm that the 1-3 circuit was broken by turning off the switch? (Just to exclude any other possible wiring scheme) Yup, spot on! I don't suppose the light fitting has a spare insulated terminal that you could use? That would make it too easy, and would cost the manufacturers an...

How? There has to be a current imbalance - if there's no current flowing there's nothing to cause the trip. (Obviously if there's current in other circuits it could, so the MCB for the fault doesn't have to be on, but another one does, and has to be supplying a load). Cheers, Howard

Errr - I didn't actually suggest a solution, just an investigation! :) This is the solution... You'll need to connect: the black to the blue both green/yellows to the green/yellow one of the switch-reds to the brown That's the easy bit - you finally need to connect the live red to...

Can you see how the wires are sheathed together, or is that lost in the wall? My guess would be that you have a T&E cable coming from a supply somewhere (possibly another light), and that's the black, one red, one green/yellow, then another T&E coming from the switch, being the other two reds...

I've found they go in reasonably OK if you pull them - trying to push them gets you nowhere! :) Cheers, Howard

OK, let me confirm this: The thing that's tripping is the RCD - the MCB isn't? The RCD trips when you connect something to any socket? If so, then the problem is a wiring fault on the socket ring - possibly a disconnected Neutral, or a short between Neutral and Earth. The reasoning...

No, a positive coefficient - as it gets hotter, the resistance increases. So the resistance is lower at switch-on which is why bulbs most often blow when they are turned on. If the resistance fell as it got hotter, you'd get thermal runaway and the bulb would blow immediately, making...

It's 480 Mb/sec - forty times faster than "Full Speed". Don't you just love marketing hype? Cheers, Howard

No, I think you've got it about right! The problem I see in what you suggest is that a 4mm² radial in a conduit doesn't make it to 32A (if I'm reading the tables properly) so I'm now thinking of a 20A MCB for it. No, utterly unfeasible to do this, because it needs proper...

If it means that the shelves at B&Q are stocked to the same standard as Home Depot, I hope they do! It annoys me immensely when you go to, say, the bolts bins to find that most of the stuff is in the wrong bins, and it takes ten minutes to find four the same of anything! Somehow in the US...

Yes, it should be the length needed to go into the olive, and the bottom of the nut should be over the sheath. It means you want about an inch of steel showing (but measure it, don't take my word for this!). Yes, the hat should seal over the sheath to make it watertight (or as much as...

I happened to be walking down the electrics aisle of my local B&Q Warehouse the other day (I didn't buy anything, honest! :) ) and I heard someone asking a young lad in the orange uniform about the suitability of a particular device (could have been a switch, I didn't pay much attention). The...

But would he successfully choose between V, A and Ohms? And would he then be able to read what it's telling him? :-) Cheers, Howard

When you say "rated" do you mean it was said to need a 10A supply, or it was actually 2.3kW input or thereabouts? If the latter, that's about 28,000Btu/h of cooling, which is a hefty beast - enough for a small house. Actually, about seventy square metres - not a very small one! :-) I...

I wonder if we've got the old diameter / cross-section confusion again? Cheers, Howard

Why is that? The maximum input rating is a tad under 1kW - I know motors have a heavy startup surge, but is it as much as that? OK, I'll have a look. I take it this in addition to the earth connection that's part of its supply wiring? From the main CU to the proposed loft-CU will be about...

No, the pipes are copper, so the two units are definately connected that way. But there is also an earth core in the cables connecting them, so they're bonded to each other that way too. Cheers, Howard

Hmmm... It could be that both ends of the new ring were connected into one socket (hey, if a ring is good, two must be better, surely? :lol: ) but that's unlikely since it means four wires into each terminal, which is hard to do. If this is the case you just need to remove two of the cables...

Lectrician, Thanks for the advice... I want to limit the number of cables I run because of the difficulty of the route (see below). If the 4mm² cable isn't really enough for the Aircon and the sockets together, I'll scrap the sockets idea - it was just a convenience thing "while I was...