Lights flickering

[Dutchy1]

Hi,

I recently laid some sound boards underneath my new laminate flooring, now I've used nails to keep them in place before I laid the laminate, my house lights seem to be flickering, have I accidentally hammered a nail into the wiring under the floor boards?

Any advise appreciated.

Ev

 

[RF Lighting]

Maybe, but it's more likely you've vibrated a connectin loose with all your hammering. You need to find the prolem and repair it, or have it repaired. Left alone, it will lead to the failure of your lights, and or fire.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Deleted

 

[Dutchy1]

It's been happening for a few days intermittently, would somebody need to come round with some kind of piece of equipment to fnd the area it's in or would I need to remove the floor boards in the area I've been working on?

As its been doing it for a few days and the house hasn't caught fire, am I safe to say this is unlikely to happen?

Thanks for your input.

Ev

 

[RF Lighting]

You or your electrician will need to lift the floor and find where the faulty joint is, assuming it is in the floor void at all.

No you are what ever the opposite of 'safe to say this is unlikely to happen' is.

The longer you leave it, the worse it'll get, and the more the risk of fire gets, also it will be harder and more expensive to fix once you've let the wiring burn out.

 

[Dutchy1]

Should i reduce the amount of lighting I'm using around the house until the electrician can find the fault?

 

[bernardgreen]

Should i reduce the amount of lighting I'm using around the house until the electrician can find the fault?

Reducing the amount of lighting may reduce the risk IF the fault is on a switched live wire, if it is on a permanent live wire then the hazard remains the same unless you turn off ALL the lights at the CU.

Reduced lighting will increase the risks of accidents due to in-adequate lighting.

 

[SaladFingers]

Should i reduce the amount of lighting I'm using around the house until the electrician can find the fault?

Reducing the amount of lighting may reduce the risk IF the fault is on a switched live wire, if it is on a permanent live wire then the hazard remains the same

No it doesn't.

The point of using less of the lighting or none at all is to reduce the current draw. If there's a poor connection, then permanent live or not, it's the current draw which will cause the heating effect of the poor connection.

 

[bernardgreen]

it's the current draw which will cause the heating effect of the poor connection.

And if the switched live with the fault is not live ( switch is OFF ) then there can be no current through the fault ( other than some miniscule current from neutral via lamp to the fault may be possible )

 

[Aragorn84]

If the fault is on a permanent supply to the lighting, and all the lights are off, theres no current flowing thru the permanent live either...

 

[Taylortwocities]

If the fault is on a permanent supply to the lighting, and all the lights are off, theres no current flowing thru the permanent live either...

Of course.

But then you will not notice any flickering, because all of the lights are off!

 

[bernardgreen]

If the fault is on a permanent supply to the lighting, and all the lights are off, theres no current flowing thru the permanent live either...

No but the 230 volts is there to drive current through any fault involving the cable.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The point of using less of the lighting or none at all is to reduce the current draw. If there's a poor connection, then permanent live or not, it's the current draw which will cause the heating effect of the poor connection.

Unless you implement "none at all" by turning off the circuit breaker, then any fault in the loop will remain, and current will flow through it whether any lights are on or not.

 

[Dutchy1]

Well just before I went to bed last night we had a power cut and I though....oh dear! But then I looked outside and the whole street was out of power. It remained off for about 30mins and then just as I was going to bed came back on.

This morning I used some of the lighting that was flickering the last couple of days and they weren't flickering anymore and tonight the others seem to be working fine.

Maybe it's not my fault after all and down to whatever the power company have been up to the last few days.

Ev

 

[Taylortwocities]

Take the laminate flooring up anyway..