Downstaire lights trip since house earth spike installed

[whitehaven]

Hi,
We moved into a refurbished house that has been totally rewired.
The other month the Electricity company came out to fit a Economy 10 electric meter & mentioned that there was no Earth stake fitted as far as he could see & that we need to get the electrician out who wired the house.
After several messages & calls he came & fitted an earth wire from the consumer unit down to the ground via an earth spike.
According to neighbours this electrician hasd completed a 1 month crash course on electrics - which i am not knocking (this house does have a electriocs completion certificate).
Since he fitted the earth spike 2 nights ago the downstairs lights keep tripping.
He turned up the following day & told my wife it was just coincidence as 2 bulbs had blown in the kitchen.
I have rang him & suggested that he may of caused a short when fitting the new earth wire into the consumer unit & that the trip switch l lights are going because of what he did & not coincidence.
I am trying to get him back to sort it out. Am i likely to be right or what else could it be. It is not possibly to flick the trip switch on without it going straight off again. If it had been a dodgy bulb ( coincidence) it would stay on surely?
Thanks in advance for any response.

 

[sparkiemike]

Your post suggests that the electrician orginally left the installation without an adequate means of earthing, if this is the case it is very worrying, and is a very basic mistake - even for somebody who did a crash course.

Are you saying that it has only tripped twice - i.e. when the lamps (blubs) blew or does the circuit trip all the time?

6A Type B circuit breakers can trip when a lamp fails. Lamps are given a life in hours e.g. 1000hr, so if they have been installed at the same time and if you have many downlights it can give the impression that "the blubs blow all the time", however it may be case they have come to the end of their life.

If the breaker is tripping all the time & for no reason, it could be that the circuit breaker or RCD has detected a fault (that has always been there) and can now do its job because you have adequate means of earthing.

 

[whitehaven]

Your post suggests that the If the breaker is tripping all the time & for no reason, it could be that the circuit breaker or RCD has detected a fault (that has always been there) and can now do its job because you have adequate means of earthing.

Yes we do have numerous spot lights in the kitchen diner however the trip switch will not stay on so it may be like you suggested that a fault may have been evident the whole time with the downstairs lights but been masked until the earth spike fitted.
I will ring him again this morning as no response from my text yesterday.

Thanks for your response sparkiemike

 

[riveralt]

After several messages & calls he came & fitted an earth wire from the consumer unit down to the ground via an earth spike.
According to neighbours this electrician hasd completed a 1 month crash course on electrics - which i am not knocking (this house does have a electriocs completion certificate)

This 'electrician' is dangerous and should not be anywhere near anyones house.
If he was the one who rewired the house then he should have issued you with an Electrical Installation Certificate, Schedules of Inspections and Schedule of Test Results. The EIC should have contained a section on the type of earthing system in place.
You should also have received a Certificate of Building Regulations Complaince from the competent persons scheme he is registered with.
If you haven't received all these documents then I would question his competence.
If he does belong to one of the competent persons schemes you should contact them to draw their attention to the problems you have had regarding this installation.
My concern is that if he has failed to recognise the type of earthing system installed and consequently failed to ensure an earthing system was installed - then how could he conduct the electrical tests and get satifactory results.
Which also makes me question the quality of the whole installation.

 

[Chri5]

Scan and post up they EIC and a photo of the cu plus the main intake area.

I take it you have rcd's on the system before and in the cu.

 

[whitehaven]

Will check the paperwork we have tonight for the house when at home -at work now believe it or not!
I wonder if the 2 ceiling roses could be causing the problem, when we moved in the wife wanted mt to put up some lights we brought with us, 5 stem ceiling lights with a shallow dish for the connectors to go in.
Perhaps I have caused a slight earth or something when i fitted them & like an earlier comment 'it was masked until the house spike fitted'. If this is the case then the problem is with me not the sparky i suppose.
I will drop the 2 light fittings tonight to see if that was the problem. if so will get a sparky in to fit them correctly. 5 x eth/live/neutrals trying to connect to in a shallow dish on thelight fitting isnt the best.

 

[yorkspark]

So what you are now saying is despite slagging off your 1 month wonder which by the way doesn't make him an electrician it could now be your fault due to your incompetence and stupidity, it beggars belief

 

[phatboy]

So what you are now saying is despite slagging off your 1 month wonder which by the way doesn't make him an electrician it could now be your fault due to your incompetence and stupidity, it beggars belief

Bit harsh don't you think?

And I find it very unlikely this is the cause. If he had installed the lights and created a short to earth, it would most likely be permanent, not intermittent.

Back on your box, please

 

[ban-all-sheds]

the trip switch will not stay on

Isn't that permanent?

 

[phatboy]

the trip switch will not stay on

Isn't that permanent?

No, try reading the whole thread. You really do add nothing to this forum, why won't you go away?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

So the trip switch won't stay on because of a fault not there all of the time?

Why won't it stay on when the fault isn't there?

 

[1john]

I really think you should get a different electrician to have a look at the installation, It is amazingly stupid to not have an means of earthing on an installation, very dangerous and the idiot who did the work is very lucky nobody got hurt or died!

I would not be letting this bloke near your house again if I were you except to perhaps bring you a cheque or cash to rectify the other guaranteed problems he's left behind. Lets hope he has ran cables in prescribed zones and not forgotten to install main bonding too!!!!

 

[securespark]

You woud like to think that even if the OP made a mistake and created a SC condition, that it would have been picked up on the IR testing prior to re-energisation.

 

[whitehaven]

Yorkspark - Your comment is very harsh.
I will be dropping the 2 ceiling lights tonight. Though I don't think this is the cause. They All the electrician did when he told my wife it was the 2 ceiling bulbs causing the problem is remove them. They are spotlights by the way.
He has not returned my calls. Like others on here have mentioned, the fact that he never earther the house is a huge worry & does make you think whta other problems may exist.
I intend to have a different electrician to fix the two ceiling lights & check out the cause of the 'downstairs lights' being permanently tripped.
My wife is today hunting out our Electrical certificate which we had with the house.

 

[viewer]

If you're getting an electrician out to fix the lights, I'd suggest not dropping them but letting the electrician do his/her tests first. Any alterations now could create more confusion.