Communal Lighting

[junoeclipse]

Hello, this is a little bit of a hard one to explain, but hope someone can help.

I live on the ground floor in a block of converted flats, I have my own entrance, and the 3 flats above have there own going upstairs. Iv found out the stair lights are linked into my consumer unit, and one of the lights on the stairs isn't working, i don't mind so much as i have no need for them.

However, while discovering they were on my supply, I turned the fuse off at the consumer unit and as expected all of the lights went out, but, the light that was out previously turned its self on? It was also still on when I turned of my whole supply at the meter, when I put both switches back on, the other lights came on, and the single light went off again,

Does anyone know what could be the reason? Could it be linked up to another flat, and does this mean they could be using my electricity?

Thanks guys,
J

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Very strange, could just be coincidence.
If you power your system off how does that effect the volume (reading) of electricity being used at your meter.
Do you pay a service charge for this building?

 

[ricicle]

The light that doesn't work when the power is on but does when you turn power off is an emergency fitting. But sometimes a faulty unit inside (or lamp) can cause them not to work on mains but they will work on the battery back-up .

 

[bernardgreen]

The lights are incorrectly wired. Difficult to say exactly what is wrong without a hands on examination and continuity checks.

There is a problem and you need an electrician who is experienced in fault finding to find and rectify the error. Wiring in conversions can be a nightmare if the builder doing the conversion tries to use existing wiring.

//www.diynot.com/forums/electrics/replacing-a-timer-delay-light-switch.307073/#2252718

 

[ban-all-sheds]

But sometimes a faulty unit inside (or lamp) can cause them not to work on mains but they will work on the battery back-up .

And sometimes they are non-maintained lights which are supposed to do exactly what the OP describes.

The lights are incorrectly wired.

Not necessarily.

 

[holmslaw]

..

 

[andrew1210]

How is the light controlled when it works normally? Is it on a timer, pir, or photocell that may have failed, but the emergency function is still working due to the perm. live still being present?

 

[bhm1712]

How is the light controlled when it works normally? Is it on a timer, pir, or photocell that may have failed, but the emergency function is still working due to the perm. live still being present?

There does not appear to be any fault... it sounds like its all working fine. The only fault if you like, is that the common lighting is being fed from the OP's supply which he is paying for.

 

[andrew1210]

I wasn't too sure, the OP stated that one of the lights were not working until he removed the supply, but he wasn't to bothered. I don't know if he means it's not working as in "off" or not working as in broken!

 

[SimonH2]

The problem is you're paying for the common parts electricity, which is the landlords responsibility.The landlord should have his own fuseboard and meter.

I suspect it's quite common for such arrangements. I own a flat which is much the same, except that the loads are split between the flats - my flat supplies a light on the rear steps, one of the upstairs flats supplies an upstairs light, the other downstairs flat supplies a downstairs light and the door bell/intercom*.

Personally I'd rather have it like this - if the freeholder had to pay for an electricity supply and maintenance of the installation then he'd just add a markup before passing it on anyway.

* Which was fun when they were doing some work and turned the power off, not knowing about this. I don't know what they were doing, but "supply lockoff" was via a piece of very tamperproof insulation tape on the DNO supplied main switch

 

[junoeclipse]

Hey, thanks for your replys, sorry its took me so long to reply but doing this place and renovating my mams house has been taking a lot of hours.

Iv actually moved from one of the flats upstairs to the one on the ground floor, I was sure the light was working when I moved in upstairs originally but I could be wrong, the landlord thought the bulb had gone and tried to sort it but couldn't get it to switch on, and it wasn't until i moved into the bottom flat that he found out all the lights were connected to my supply, there's 5 in total, evenly all the way up the stairs, it doesn't seem like an odd one out to be an emergency light, infact this one is in front of the first floors front door.

The meter doesn't go up when i turn my power off, and i don't mean just the lighting fuse, but the big switch above my meter which is on the stairs. The light thats not working is the same light fitting as another, but the other one doesn't come on, and looking at it there is no battery.

I don't pay a service charge, and the landlord did say about getting a separate meter but it was going to cost to much, and im to timid to ask for the money lol, i pluged in an energy monitor and there using about 150w, so it works out at around £13 a month

Thanks again for all your replys,
J

 

[SimonH2]

While technically it's the landlords responsibility - it could cost you more if he did get his own metered supply. Take his costs, add a markup, then divide by the number of flats - and that's what you'd pay.

You can't trust the reading from an energy monitor - I assume this is one of those "clip on" units that only measures current. I don't think you've said what type of light they are, but if they are on long-term then they really should be fluorescent - incandescent will a) cost a lot to run and b) burn out quite frequently. However, fluorescent lighting has a notoriously bad current waveform and power factors - and this would give a very misleading result from an energy monitor that doesn't measure true power (virtually none of the clip on units do).

If they were taking 150W, then that's 30W each for 5 lights (could be, the larger 2D lamps are 28W nominal), or nearly 40W each for 4 lights. That sounds a bit high for what sounds like a small area.

 

[junoeclipse]

Hey,

Yeah its the 2D ones, not sure of the wattage though, Il have to check. If it is 28w though its £150 a year, and I dont benefit from the lights, I have my own entrance, the lights are on the stairs that the other flats use .

Cheers
J

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I wonder if it's your responsibility to ensure that the lights are always supplied?

i.e. would you be doing anything wrong if you kept turning them off?

Turning off just the circuit for the lights might be seen as malicious/provocative, but there's no law against irrational fear of the dangers of unattended electrical installations.

Modern fridges and freezers will stay cool/cold for hours if you don't open the doors - you could turn off your power when you go to bed, when you go out....

 

[securespark]

Difficult to say exactly what is wrong without a hands on examination

I say!