Outdoor socket troubleshooting?

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Morning!

We just moved to a house and there's an installation of an outdoor socket, which would be really handy, but for some reason is not working, light is off for bot switches and I tried pluggin stuff with no luck.

I moved to the UK a few years ago so still getting familiar with the usuall switches/fuses stuff. Not sure where to look, i.e there's no GFCI outlet with a reset button right?. The house was built only 3/4 years ago and the socket as you can see looks pretty new and sealed, but I guess is still possible it has broken in the inside?.

I can't contact the previous owners and I don't feel too confident attempting to replace it myself unless it's pretty straightforward and safe. I guess I need an electrician? Or perhaps a handyman could do the job?
Anything I can try to do before that?

Thank you
 

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I moved to the UK a few years ago so still getting familiar with the usuall switches/fuses stuff. Not sure where to look, i.e there's no GFCI outlet with a reset button right?.
I will assume from your use of them term GFCI that you are from North America.

Socket circuits in the UK can typically supply far more power than socket circuits in North America. Socket circuits in the US are 15A or 20A, while those in the UK are normally 32A but sometimes 20A, the voltage is also double, leading to the circuit being able to supply 3 times as much power. The result is we need far less circuits in the UK than in North America. Our plugs contain fuses to provide overcurrent protection for the flexible cables. 32A circuits are most commonly installed in the form of a ring, though they can also be installed as a "radial" circuit with heavier cable.

Lighting in the UK is normally on separate circuits from sockets, usually protected with a 6A breaker.

Which brings us to a device known as the FCU or sometimes "fused spur" (technically a "fused spur" is a spur fed from a FCU but people commonly use the term to refer fo the accessory itself).

29377_P

FCUs as the name suggests contain a fuse, they also usually but not always have a switch. The switch is normally (perhaps always) double pole. They are used for a variety of functions including.

* Providing over-current protection for a spur that serves multiple sockets or is wired in smaller cable than is allowed for non-fused spurs.
* Allowing a spur to be switched on and off.
* Providing over-current protection and/or switching for fixed appliances.
* Providing over-current protection for lighting that is fed from a socket circuit.

You also see 20A double pole switches, which can be used for switching of spurs or fixed equipment where covercurrent protection is not needed. Some brands of these can be hard to distinguish from light switches.

Roughly speaking what americans call a GFCI we call a RCD (things are a little more complex than that but we don't need to go into it here)

We don't have a direct equivilent to the American "GFCI outlet". Sockets with built in RCDs exist but are uncommon and the RCD in them only protects that one socket, it does not have "load" terminals like American GFCI outlets do. You also sometimes see FCUs with RCD protection or standalone RCDs in their own enclosures, but again these are relatively unusual. RCD protection in the UK is normally handled in the consumer unit (roughly, what americans would call a "panel"). Sometimes a RCD is shared between multiple circuits, other times it is integrated with the overcurrent protection in the form of what we call a RCBO (roughly, what Americans would call a GFCI breaker).

The house was built only 3/4 years ago and the socket as you can see looks pretty new and sealed, but I guess is still possible it has broken in the inside?.
While not impossible, given the lack of visual deterioration and given that neither side of the double socket works I think it's relatively unlikely that the socket itself is at fault.

I would say that the most likely explanation is that the supply to the outside socket has been switched off somewhere. It's also possible that a wire has come out of a terminal.

While an outside socket can be connected directly to an indoor socket circuit this is often considered poor practice, since if the socket does end up full of water it can take out RCDs and leave a large part of the electrical installation unusable until it is sorted. It's quite common for an outside socket to be supplied from a switch or FCU.

I would certainly be taking a look around inside in the vicinity of the socket for any switches or FCUs that do not have an obvious function, which may be used to switch the outside socket. I would also check the consumer unit to see if there is a dedicated breaker for the outside socket there that may be turned off.
 
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North American light switches are installed such that the switch position we'd normally associate with ON is usually OFF.
As above, switched sockets are rare over there....
First job is check power with switches in both positions.
Second is look for an FCU inside that wall.
Third is check the CU (panel)- post a couple of pics showing all fuses/breakers is easiest
 
View attachment 304801

They are switched OFF. Just saying.

:ROFLMAO:
I did try it though before the picture.. both of them, no light in the leds, no electricity

Thank you everybody, how many replies :)
I'm spanish, but my wife is american... so yes I thought maybe there was something similar here to GFCI , like they seem to generally have in their garages for outdoor sockets.

I'm posting now a picture of the other side of the wall , where there's another socket, not sure if it's related, but that one works. And also one of the panel. Can't find any switch close by, or any FCU in the wall that would need to be replaced (I didn't know about these single fuses until I moved to the UK). And I don't see any mention in the panel for the outdoor socket.

I'm trying meanwhile to find out if the socket was here when they built the house or the previous owners installed it. @plugwash your post it's great, so much useful information thanks.
 

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I just realized about another FCU, right next to the main door.... but I don't think it would berelated as this is the other side of the house, opposite to the garden where the outdoor socket is located. But I have no idea what's for, and after turning it off, couldn't find anything that is not working :unsure: or if the fuse needs replacing.
 

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All your circuits are protected by an RCD so that is alright.

As that socket is the other side of the wall it is most likely that that is where the outside socket is connected.
There isn't much that can go wrong apart from a loose/disconnected wire.


Perhaps the outside socket got damp and caused the RCCB to trip so the previous owners disconnected the wiring to outside.



Could the FCU be for an outside light?
 
All your circuits are protected by an RCD so that is alright.

As that socket is the other side of the wall it is most likely that that is where the outside socket is connected.
There isn't much that can go wrong apart from a loose/disconnected wire.


Perhaps the outside socket got damp and caused the RCCB to trip so the previous owners disconnected the wiring to outside.



Could the FCU be for an outside light?
The outside light seems to be working ok even with the switch off


Now... I'm attaching a few more pictures of the garden socket, so that way I will feel less stupid ( but you can still make fun of me) when I share the response I got from the previous owner, which I managed to contact via the agency:

There is no external socket, it was a fake plug with a cover we used to store a spare key.
:ROFLMAO:

I know I know, but please look at the pictures. I'm still not convinced they mean this same socket. First, this socket is in the private garden. There's a fence door, which can be open from the outside if you dont lock it from inside the garden, so could be used for that purpose.
But as you can see, there's a black long cable plugged, carefully hidden under the stones, and installed to the wooden shed we have. Inside the shed, there's another outlet, right in the same spot of the wall where the outside connection. Is that something you do for a fake outlet? :unsure:
I have to say that the previous owners were not the nicest/most helpful people during the selling process... we are actually surprised they replied, maybe they are just trolling me :giggle:
 

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It would seem very weird to wire up a fake dodgy shed supply from a fake socket.

I would say the next thing to do would be to turn off the power to the whole house (since you don't know where if anywhere it's fed from you can't turn off just the feed to said socket), unscrew the front of the socket and see if there is any actual wiring behind it.
 
There is no external socket,
Well, there definitely is.

it was a fake plug with a cover we used to store a spare key.
What was?
The socket and plug are real. Whether the socket is connected, obviously cannot be determined from the internet.

I know I know, but please look at the pictures. I'm still not convinced they mean this same socket.
I agree. It doesn't make sense to say that about the socket in your pictures.
 
Thanks, I'm glad you agree, I will do as plugwash suggest and unscrew the front of the socket tomorrow (after I figure out how to... I'm sure it's a 1 minute google search).
I'll come back with the results. I sent another email to the agency explaining the shed supply installation with pictures, so maybe they can double check with the previous owners if we are talking of the same thing here.
 
Most outside sockets I've seen have four screws in the corners.

On yours it looks like the screws are covered with plastic caps which need to be pried out with a small screwdriver.
 

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