Help needed with a stange electric problem!

[tricky]

Evening all - I hope one of you can help me with a problem which happened a few hours ago....

I was upstairs and went to switch the landing light on but nothing happened. All of the other upstairs lights were ok so I presumed it was the bulb and went to fetch a new one.

I changed the bulb only to discover that it didn't fix the problem - so I checked the fuse box just in case but it looked fine and like I said all of the other upstairs light were fine.

Then I saw something strange - the switch downstairs which can also control the light was fixed in the middle! Not on or off - in the middle!

Now I'm guessing that this has something to do with my problem - but what I don't know.

Any ideas?

Cheers in advance - Tricky

 

[ban-all-sheds]

When you say fixed in the middle, do you mean that it won't move from that position to either fully up or down?

 

[Engineer Lane]

Sounds like the downstairs switch, being neither in the on or off position has internally switched off the upstairs light, but the contacts have not changed over to "pass power" to the upstairs switch to allow it to switch the light.
Paul

 

[tricky]

Thanks lads.

Sounds like the second reply hit the nail on the head - how do I resolve it though?

Will I need an electrician?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

So you have switch which you know controls a light that no longer works, you can see that this switch is broken, and yet you can only guess that its broken state is responsible for the non-functioning of your lights, but you have no idea why.

Now you are saying that you don't know what should be done about a broken light switch.

And you ask if you will need an electrician?

 

[Engineer Lane]

You could try "a light precussion" to see if the switch unsticks, but it is most probably FUBAR'd and will need replacement.

If you are in any way unsure, get a qualified spark in.
You need to know that you must isolate BOTH upstairs and downstairs lighting circuits, and there will be 6 wires plus earths to change over to the new switch. Make a drawing BEFORE you start, and if possible, change one wire over at a time to avoid mistakes.

Paul

 

[tricky]

Cheers for the reply Paul.

Ban-all-sheds - what was that reply all about - I thought this was a forum to ask advice on - not give out sarcasm.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

OK, some advice then.

You have a switch which you know controls a light that no longer works, you can see that this switch is broken, and yet you can only guess that its broken state is responsible for the non-functioning of your lights, but you have no idea why. (This is not sarcasm, it is a precis of the information provided in your first post, with important facts relevant to this discussion highlighted.)

Now you are saying that you don't know what should be done about a broken light switch. (This is not sarcasm, it is a precis of the information provided in your second post.)

You ask if you will need an electrician.

My advice is that you need an electrician.

 

[pipme]

Hi all,

Communication ....... not easy is it ?

Far more complex than electrics.

P.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

In my experience, when people complain about sarcasm it is usually because it has hit home.

 

[securespark]

Oh, Meow!!!!!

OUCH!!

 

[Big_Spark]

In my experience, when people complain about sarcasm it is usually because it has hit home.

Damn Ban, you got an Oilstone for those claws mate ?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

In my experience, when people complain about sarcasm it is usually because it has hit home.

Well - I suppose it was a bit catty, but I was a bit miffed. I shouldn't have been, because as pipme says, proper communication in this format is hard; when you don't have the audible and visual cues to accompany words it's easy to misinterpret.

What I originally wrote was:

So you have switch which you know controls a light that no longer works, you can see that this switch is broken, and yet you can only guess that its broken state is responsible for the non-functioning of your lights, but you have no idea why.

Now you are saying that you don't know what should be done about a broken light switch.

And you ask if you will need an electrician?

The first two sentences were not meant to be sarcastic - they were genuinely an attempt to summarise what tricky had said.

The final one was maybe a bit of a dig, but I didn't think it was a nasty one, more a rhetorical invitation for tricky to think about what he knows, and answer his own question.