Light not working after blown bulb replaced.

[SUNRAY]

This mornings 'just job' described in the title.

Big old victorian house a bit run down, semi overgrown front garden and evidence of cats.

Door opened by 2 elderly ladies and the waft of cats invaded my nostrils, even through the mask.

I was shown to the room and the clear 100W failed bulb, the new one looked OK and a volt stick showed nothing at the switch or rose. It lit for landing light and switch. I assumed they were on different circuits and checked the CU.

Fitted 2016 with almost all circuits being RCBO however lights is a C32 MCB and sure enough flicking it off darkened the lights in that area.

Lid off to find a really tidy board with 21 circuits and lighting 6mm² T&E goes straight into a hole in the back of the enclosure.

I'll buy a pint for the first to accurately describe what I found the other side of the wall, I'm talking about electrically not the row of litter trays or saucers of cat food.

 

[ktuludays]

Lord lucan?

 

[SUNRAY]

Lord lucan?

Wouldn't surprise me in that place.

 

[sxturbo]

Light was wired into the 6mm and there was a fused connection into this. The fuse in the box had blown when the bulb went.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Cats don't smell.

Their waste products do; as do yours.

 

[SUNRAY]

Cats don't smell.

Their waste products do; as do yours.

You put 20 cats together in a non cleaned room and as sure as eggs is eggs those cats will smell along with their waste products.

 

[JohnD]

I'll buy a pint for the first to accurately describe what I found the other side of the wall, I'm talking about electrically not the row of litter trays or saucers of cat food.

Small electrically powered crucible for scrap metal. I had one installed in my shed when I retired from the Brinks-MAT warehouse at Heathrow.

C-type because of the switch-on surge.

It also powers the industrial mincing machine I bought shortly after my first wife unexpectedly went to Australia.

 

[JohnD]

Or

An old wooden fusebox run off the 32A as a submain, feeding a few old circuits in rubber and cotton cable that had not been rewired when the rest of the house was done.

 

[bernardgreen]

(1) An ancient fuse box between the 32 Amp and the lighting circuits

OR

(2) cloth insulated wires where the copper had been eroded by cat pee vapour to be thin enough to act as a fuse that blew wehen the lamps went plasma

 

[conny]

I'd go with the 6mm feeding all the old circuit cables.
Reason? When I bought my first house, (2 up 2 down with outside toilet, yes you get the picture), the owner 'kindly' removed a twin socket face to show 2 x 2.5mm T&E's connected.
After moving in I had to do some electrical, can't remember what as it was over 40 years ago. Lifted up a couple of floorboards near the 'opened' socket and stuck my head down to have a look. What I found was the 2 grey cables going into a round 20A junction box and old rubber AND cotton/paper cables coming out to feed everything else.
Contacted the solicitor but because it wasn't in the contract that he said it had been rewired there was nothing I could do.

 

[Taylortwocities]

A room filled with hash plants?

 

[SFK]

lighting 6mm² T&E goes straight into a hole in the back of the enclosure

where it is connected with choc blocks into 0.35mm² bell wire to power the lights.

 

[SUNRAY]

Sorry, no beer this time.

The CU fitted in 2016 seems to have been a good quality total rewire and much of the decorating has not been done so chases are still visible.

The other side of the wall are a column of 3x12 way CU's, first is filled with a main switch and 10x6A RCBOs, the next has 12x6A RCBOs and the 3rd has 3x6A RCBO making a total of 25. one for each light switch in the building, each perfectly labelled with Dymo.

Sure enough the appropriate RCBO was half cocked, I just had to turn it off and on and get out as fast as the smell could propel me, dropping the mask, gloves and blue over shoes in the wheelie bin by the gate.

Not often I speak to God but I thanked him on that one.

 

[delmel]

Think Taylor has hit the nail on the head, probably a row of HPS hydroponics creating the warmest room in the house for the elderley couple.

 

[SUNRAY]

I'd go with the 6mm feeding all the old circuit cables.
Reason? When I bought my first house, (2 up 2 down with outside toilet, yes you get the picture), the owner 'kindly' removed a twin socket face to show 2 x 2.5mm T&E's connected.
After moving in I had to do some electrical, can't remember what as it was over 40 years ago. Lifted up a couple of floorboards near the 'opened' socket and stuck my head down to have a look. What I found was the 2 grey cables going into a round 20A junction box and old rubber AND cotton/paper cables coming out to feed everything else.
Contacted the solicitor but because it wasn't in the contract that he said it had been rewired there was nothing I could do.

I came across one job where the vendor had stated fully rewired to estate agents and listed on the printed paper they used to issue, all the devices had been replaced and the original fusebox was one of those flush mounted into the wall, it had been stripped apart from the backbox. The replacement CU was mounted across the front to cover the horrible mess of undersized chocbloc extensions to the original 50 year old wiring.
Luckily the contract had something like: 'As described in the accompanying details.' and there was a refund for remedial work, IIRC directly from the eastate agents.