Help with Upstairs lights working itermittently

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Help with Upstairs lights working intermittently

Hi All,

I have an intermittent problem with my upstairs house lights. Recently they have all switched off, but the fuse in the main box did not trip.
I have a Volex fuse box which has fuses that do not come out. I’m told that these are permanent fuses.

The problem is that the lights all go off and will not come back on for a while, and then all of a sudden they will come back on. They stay on and work, but then all of a sudden they will go off again.
Initially I thought the lights went off when I turned the bathroom light on, but this hasn’t been constant. And I have noticed that the lights go off if the bedroom lights are switched on or off.
There is no pattern that I have noticed.

The fuse in the box does not trip at all. So not sure what the issue could be.
All the blubs look like they are still working as the lights come on and off. Nothing has been changed in the circuit. The switches have not been touched.

Very confusing and baffling, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
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sounds like a wire has worked itself loose somewhere if nothing has been touched (if it actually has, revisit this first).

Unfortunately its a case of taking the cover of each rose one by one and checking all the cables are tight and secure and there's no damage to any cables or signs of heat damage. If there is, cut back to good clean, soft copper and reterminate.

All with the power off ofc, if this doesn't help you might need to open up your consumer unit/fuse board but without more details on what you have I'm hesitant to offer advice on that
 
Hi Iggifer,

Thanks for the reply.
But how does a wire coming loose explain that the lights randomly come on, and then stay on. But then if I turn any one off all of them go off. Even then i can turn a light on and off a few times, and then maybe on the 3rd time it will affect all the lights.

Also yesterday I had the hallway lilght on, turned the bedroom light on which turned on, but when I did the hallway light started flickering.
So then turned the bedroom light off. And then turned the small bedroom light on which worked, after a while turned the small bedroom light off, and tried to turn on again and all the lights went out....but no trip in the fuse box.

very random.
I have a VOLEX fuse box if that helps
 
brand doesn't really help much, does it have fuses or switches you flick up and down?

It could all be coincidental or there could be something causing it.

Presumably the hallway light is on a separate circuit to the other lights so the problem now covers two circuits?
 
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But how does a wire coming loose explain that the lights randomly come on

Trust us, it can explain it. The looseness might be fractional and a change in temperature or a vibration may be enough to make or break contact. As it's affecting all the upstairs lights the problem is either going to be at the first light fitting in the chain (try the room immediately above the fuse box, otherwise it's likely to be the landing), or it will be in the fuse box itself, most likely a loose neutral.

Is the downstairs hall light affected at the same time? If you have two-way switching for the hall or landing, the hall light may well be on the upstairs circuit (or the landing light on the downstairs one), so you may need to check the downstairs hall light fitting as well.

Depending on how the house has been wired, you may also need to check behind the switch plates ....

As Iggifer says, do all this with the power OFF.

PJ
 
Hey Guys,
Thanks for the replies.
I upload a picture of my fuse box

The downstairs hallway light and upstairs hallway light o`are on the same switch. But the upstairs light doesn't work, but the downstairs one does.

Their is a circuit for upstairs and a circuit for downstairs.

I went into the loft and saw this, attached is a picture. Now I see that one wire was out of the junction box, although I'm not 100% sure it was connected in the first place. What do you guys think?
The wire has power as I checked it with a tester.
If it needs to be in the junction box where do I connect it.


Thanks for the help guys
 
sorry to be clear, that cable that is disconnected from the JB is live?
did you happen to establish which core is live?
Or which circuit it's on?
Some of those cables appear to be labelled, what does the writing say?
 
There's leaving plenty of spare cable for a board change and then there's leaving plenty of spare cable for a board change!

Needs more bolognese sauce! :D
 
Seems that you have slightly more significant issues than lights going off.... this installation really does need the attention of a qualified electrician. And that wiring you saw in the loft looks potentially deadly!
 
Thanks for the comments and help guys. Very funny, looks very strange hey.
Well I have had an electrician in to sort out everything.

Thanks again for the advice.
 
Well he checked all the connections. And replaced the junction box in the loft
I think it was the junction box in the loft as this recently got knocked with loft boarding
 

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