Can someone light up my life please?

[inapickle]

Hi to you all. I'm hoping someone might be able to identify what could be causing a problem with my lights. This is what happened:

I have 3 ceiling lights in an L-shaped room. Nos. 1 & 2 operate from the same single switch, no. 3 is on a separate switch which has 3 switches, one for itself, one for the wall lights, and one to turn on/off nos. 1 & 2.

Switched on nos. 1 & 2 and immediately the bulb in no.1 blew. Didn't worry about it and left it. About 3 hours later both no. 2 and no.3 started to flicker badly and then both went off together (all other downstairs lights remained on without flickering), after a couple of minutes they came back on and a few minutes later went off completely.

Switched on downstairs cloakroom light and that started flickering so turned it off and then turned the circuit off overnight as a precaution.

All three bulbs had blown, so I replaced them all, turned supply back on, none would work. Next I checked wiring to both switches, all bulbholders and all 3 ceiling roses - all connections secure and no sign of burning or anything unusual except for a dead woodlouse in one

Then put new bulbs in all, switched on, but still those lights won't work. Wall lights work fine without flickering as do other lights on the same circuit.

There has been no wiring touched in the house recently, no new appliances, nothing. I have no intention of fiddling about other than to check connections, but would really like someone to shed some light on what could have suddenly caused this problem. I still have the circuit switched off as a precaution.

 

[andy]

never herd of that before. test the switches with a multimeter to see if they work as this could be causing the problem. did anything else unusual happen (maybe to the ring mains or summit)?

 

[inapickle]

Thanks for the reply. I don't have a multimeter to test it with, is there anything else I can do? What puzzles me most is the action 3 hours later with lights 2 and 3 which went together yet not on same switch.

This might sound daft and I can't see that it would be connected to the problem, but will just mention that I have the PC at the far end of the room, just below light no.3 and have recently changed keyboard/mouse to cordless - could it interfere with the lights in that way?

 

[andy]

Thanks for the reply. I don't have a multimeter to test it with, is there anything else I can do? What puzzles me most is the action 3 hours later with lights 2 and 3 which went together yet not on same switch.

This might sound daft and I can't see that it would be connected to the problem, but will just mention that I have the PC at the far end of the room, just below light no.3 and have recently changed keyboard/mouse to cordless - could it interfere with the lights in that way?

i doubt the computer havin a new mouse/keyboard woud do anything to the lights. to test if its the switches youll need a multimeter or change the switch and see if that works

 

[Adam_151]

Sounds to me like a dodgy connection in a junction box (or other connection point) on the lighting loop somewhere, and the extra load taken when the bulb blew (this is what trips mcbs when bulbs blow) was the "straw that broke the camels back"

You have just got to try and find it and fix it, try in the fittings in your L shaped room, or any junctionboxes above to do with it, if find nothing, the same thing in nearby rooms.

Isolating the circuit was a wise precaution, faults like this can cause fires, we had to replace a breaker in my uncle's house because it had a dodgy overheating connection on the outgoing terminal, and the breaker was all charred around the terminal, luckily, being a breaker the heat had conducted back inside it and tripped the thermal element of it, and the breaker next to it, drawing attention to the fault, anyway, I digress

 

[inapickle]

Thanks for the replies. I've changed the switch that operates nos.1 & 2 lights but they still won't work. However, on taking the old switch apart I saw that it was burnt inside. Possibly it has done the same to the 3 gang switch and the cloakroom one, but as I haven't got any spares of them no point doing anything further right now. Turned the circuit off again!

Would it have done that to all those switches though do you think? And all because of one blown bulb? Seems a bit extreme to me, but then I am a female

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Could be the other way round - somewhere a break was forming, and has now formed, in the lighting circuit, which is why some lights are fine, and some are permanently not working

 

[inapickle]

is there something else I should check for that ban all sheds? The cloakroom light which is also not working is in a direct line with nos. 1 & 2 but across the hall. Hall light is working ok.

 

[andy]

is there something else I should check for that ban all sheds? The cloakroom light which is also not working is in a direct line with nos. 1 & 2 but across the hall. Hall light is working ok.

youll need a multimeter to check if there is power to the lights nd to se if the switc cable works

 

[inapickle]

I don't have one of them so maybe it would be easier to call in an electrician. Still amazed at what happened as there doesn't seem to be rhyme nor reason to it.

Thank you all for your help, you've been great

 

[andy]

I don't have one of them so maybe it would be easier to call in an electrician. Still amazed at what happened as there doesn't seem to be rhyme nor reason to it.

Thank you all for your help, you've been great

might be a good idea. for what your describing, its pretty hard to guess whats happened. let us kno what did happen whaever you do

 

[inapickle]

I will do that

 

[inapickle]

Hello again

I said I would let you know what the outcome was. It turned out that there was no power getting to the ceiling lights at all nor to the switch. The downstairs loo light was in direct line to these lights and the fault was found to be underneath the plate of this light where there are about four live wires joined together. There was a break near the end of one of these live wires.

Simple huh?

Once again, many thanks for all your help