Hi all, I'm posting on here out of desperation; I've spent the past two days trying to diagnose a problem with the downstairs lighting circuit.
Everything was fine until one evening earlier this week I turned on a light in the hallway downstairs and it didn't come on. I assumed the bulb (a standard incandescent one) was gone so went to the sitting room and the light there didn't turn on either, the bulbs (which are CFL) flickered every couple of seconds, but didn't kick in fully.
I've tested all of the switches work, and have confirmed that there is voltage at the ceiling rose terminals with a mains tester when there should be - i.e. voltage there when switches are on, not when switched off. The bulbs have all been tested and definitely work.
I've even taken a bayonet socket from an old lamp and used that to wire into the ceiling roses to check that there is current getting there - there is, but it just seems to be too low to illuminate the bulbs - even the incandescent bulbs wont glow so the current must be very low, but still there. The CFL bulbs are flickering presumably because the boost capacitors in there are charging up and eventually gaining enough charge to make the tube flicker, but not enough to illuminate properly.
I've switched the upstairs and downstairs breakers to rule out that issue too. The breaker didn't trip when the initial fault occurred, but still operates as when I introduce a fault to the upstairs light circuit after switching them. Upstairs light circuit works fine with the downstairs breaker installed.
Any idea? It seems like the downstairs lighting circuit has dropped current, but I can't fathom why, or how to put it right (short of calling in a sparky who will just rip everything out and put a new lot in...).
Advice greatly appreciated.
Everything was fine until one evening earlier this week I turned on a light in the hallway downstairs and it didn't come on. I assumed the bulb (a standard incandescent one) was gone so went to the sitting room and the light there didn't turn on either, the bulbs (which are CFL) flickered every couple of seconds, but didn't kick in fully.
I've tested all of the switches work, and have confirmed that there is voltage at the ceiling rose terminals with a mains tester when there should be - i.e. voltage there when switches are on, not when switched off. The bulbs have all been tested and definitely work.
I've even taken a bayonet socket from an old lamp and used that to wire into the ceiling roses to check that there is current getting there - there is, but it just seems to be too low to illuminate the bulbs - even the incandescent bulbs wont glow so the current must be very low, but still there. The CFL bulbs are flickering presumably because the boost capacitors in there are charging up and eventually gaining enough charge to make the tube flicker, but not enough to illuminate properly.
I've switched the upstairs and downstairs breakers to rule out that issue too. The breaker didn't trip when the initial fault occurred, but still operates as when I introduce a fault to the upstairs light circuit after switching them. Upstairs light circuit works fine with the downstairs breaker installed.
Any idea? It seems like the downstairs lighting circuit has dropped current, but I can't fathom why, or how to put it right (short of calling in a sparky who will just rip everything out and put a new lot in...).
Advice greatly appreciated.