Lighting circuit - flat

[Egkk]

Hi

I turned on my bathroom light + fan yesterday and the bulb blew which took out all of the flats lighting circuit. 1960s build.

I’ve since changed the entire light fitting as the bulb went fairly badly, but I cannot regain lighting in the whole flat.

I’ve check the available Wylex fuse wires - all fine.

I’ve checked the internals of all light switches - all seemingly fine.

I’ve checked most light fittings in the flat and again all fine.

So any advice please gratefully received before I have to resort to calling someone out!

 

[jurassic sparkk]

Send a picture of the fuses.

 

[Egkk]

Send a picture of the fuses.

 

[jurassic sparkk]

Have you got a non contact voltage detector?

 

[jurassic sparkk]

+ has anyone recently carried out any work?

 

[sparkwright]

How do you know the fuse wire in the fuse carrier is intact?

 

[sparkwright]

HANG ON, surely the lighting fuse is inside the MEM box...?

 

[jurassic sparkk]

HANG ON, surely the lighting fuse is inside the MEM box...?

Most likely yes, i was thinking that too. Looks like its the smallest cable there, so presumably it might be for the lights.

 

[Egkk]

So is it worth taking the cover off the MEM and seeing what’s in there?

Really appreciate all the responses etc so far, thank you

 

[jurassic sparkk]

Not really no, wires will still be live, regardless of the main switch being in the OFF position.
However, you could explain to (whoever may come, presumably an electrician) that most likely the fault is from there.

 

[Egkk]

Will do - thank you very much for your help

Not really no, wires will still be live, regardless of the main switch being in the OFF position.
However, you could explain to (whoever may come, presumably an electrician) that most likely the fault is from there.

 

[securespark]

How did you check the circuit was dead in order to change the fitting?

Unless I'm missing something, it could be two issues: a blown fuse an an incorrectly refitted bathroom fitting.

 

[Adam_151]

The incomming terminals on the MEM unit should be pretty wall shrouded beind a piece of paxolin, this is what it looks like inside https://flameport.com/electric_museum/old_equipment/mem_fusebox_4way_enclosed_metal.cs4 (Thanks @flameport )

They are designed to opened with the internal isolator off, but the incomming supply live, so its reasonly safe, just not complety protected against lacks of awareness common sense. Just remember it dates from back before cars had seatbelts, just watch out incase it has asbestos flash pads!

 

[ericmark]

One would think turning off the two fuse boxes on at a time should show which does the lights, and if renewing the fuse means some lights work then seems unlikely it is the fuse not repaired correctly.

I see the point made by @HandyMan23 "Have you got a non contact voltage detector?" it can speed up the detective work, but it will only show line supplies I use one myself, but seems likely then one would have to start using non contact amps or wired tests before one knows the full story.

So likely power off and genitally tugging at wires can find faults as well, since bulb failed with ionisation we are looking at a lot of amps to rupture even a 6 amp bit of fuse wire, so it could have resulted in any poor connection failing. Normally lighting is run as radials so we look at what lamp has failed, guess which light is likely the one before it, and look for the fault there or the one which has failed.

The meter I show is reasonably safe, there is no range which can cause a short circuit, but cheaper meters with direct connect amp ranges can easy have wrong range selected, I did an 'A' level Physics course, and could not believe how many fuses were blown by using meters on the wrong range.