lights gone out but trip switch still on

[helpneeded27]

Removing some tiles tonight, and with all the banging and chiselling the lights went out ,from the floor and walls shaking during hammering.The odd thing is the trip switch is still in the on position.turned the trip off for 5 minutes then on and when i turned the lights on they lit then faded and the whole upstairs went black again.Any ideas.

 

[JohnD]

loose wire. Most likely in a ceiling rose. Unless you have put a nail or drill through a cable.

Loose wires tend to burn away under load

If EVERY lamp is out, it may be at the first ceiling rose in the circuit.

If some are on and some are off, it will either be at the last one that works, or the first one that doesn't

I hope you do not have any concealed junction boxes hidden under the floor or anywhere.

Invest £8 in a multimeter which will help you trace it.

When working on light fittings, never disconnect any wire without drawing a diagram of connections and marking every wire with an identifying number or other mark.

Although there will be several in the same colours, they perform different fuctions and you can't afford to swap them round or join (e.g.) all the Black ones together.

 

[helpneeded27]

I will check the ceiling roses in the bathroom tomorrow that could be a possibility,considering i have platerboard walls and they were shaking during tile removal,that could have loosened something.the only other thing i did at the weekend was disconnect the shaver socket from the lighting circuit and put the wires in a jb in the roof going on to the next light in the chain.but things have been fine the last day until i started hammering,just been in the loft and all wires done up tight.thx 4 advise so far

 

[helpneeded27]

just noticed when the bathroom light is on and i switch the bedroom light on the other light dims or sometimes the whole lot go out,but the trip does still not trip out,only a reset ie.on & off on the trip will sort it.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The circuit breaker has nothing to do with it - not sure why turning it off and on changes anything - a lighting circuit is not like a PC that can be rebooted.

You've got a dodgy connection somewhere - find it and fix it before it does anything nasty..

 

[tim west]

If lamps dim when others are switched on it sounds like you've created a series short so that lamps are coming on in series instead of parallel?

 

[TicklyT]

Don't rely on the position of the toggle to determine if a breaker has tripped.

Some breakers will trip, but leave the toggle in the 'on' position. They then require the toggle to be moved to 'off' and back to 'on' to reset them.

It stops anyone holding / taping up / clamping the toggle to stop the breaker tripping.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Excellent point - I'd forgotten that.

it would explain the apparent "off-on-reset" behaviour....