Tonight I may have drilled through a cable but at no point did I notice it, in terms of drill feel, reaction, or anything dramatic happening. I merely have the coincidence of drilling into walls and an electrical problem. Perhaps you guys can help me figure out if I should rip the walls open or not?
The RCD on one of the "groups" of circuits tripped and will not come back on unless the red "MAIN SWITCH" is turned off. Even if I switch off ALL of the black switches in this group, if the MAIN SWITCH is on then the RCD immediately trips back off. The black switches include such things as the cooker, kitchen sockets, and upstairs lighting as well (I don't know why). The house has several such groupings, duplicated on day/peak, and night/off-peak CU's (it has storage heaters, your see).
Now for what I was up to: a cupboard tore off the wall in the house and the original fixings were done for, as was the plasterboard in the immediate vicinity. As a patch, I screwed some ply to the plasterboard and attached the cupboard back up to that. It was at some point during this work that the electrical issue appeared - I only noticed when my saw wouldn't go back on. I had indeed been drilling during that time but I can't say for sure that's when it happened as nothing e.g. the lights were affected right where I was.
The kitchen was new in 2010 and all done from scratch, as in from the bricks up - all new plasterboard (on battens), all new electrics, etc. I was not there for any of this but I know it took place, as part of a whole-house renovation.
The fixings on one side of the cupboards were right in the middle of one of the vertical permitted cable zones (i.e. 4ft or so above a socket), so theoretically cables would have been permitted there. But the presence of the original cupboard fixings suggested to me that when the kitchen was installed it was known that there were no cables in that zone (it all being done at the same time), so I imagined it safe. Also, all of the kitchen sockets etc run along in a rim above the counter top and it would be an arbitrary place for one to go up vertically. So I decided it would be alright - maybe foolishly.
What shall I do tomorrow to check this out? There are other RCDs I can try switching around into that slot, that's an obvious first step I can try tomorrow.
Since the RCD stays tripped even with ALL grey circuit switches off, does that tell us anything? That seems to me like it would isolate all of the circuit(s) already, so if I had drilled through something it would be cut off and no longer troubling the RCD?
Thanks for any ideas
The RCD on one of the "groups" of circuits tripped and will not come back on unless the red "MAIN SWITCH" is turned off. Even if I switch off ALL of the black switches in this group, if the MAIN SWITCH is on then the RCD immediately trips back off. The black switches include such things as the cooker, kitchen sockets, and upstairs lighting as well (I don't know why). The house has several such groupings, duplicated on day/peak, and night/off-peak CU's (it has storage heaters, your see).
Now for what I was up to: a cupboard tore off the wall in the house and the original fixings were done for, as was the plasterboard in the immediate vicinity. As a patch, I screwed some ply to the plasterboard and attached the cupboard back up to that. It was at some point during this work that the electrical issue appeared - I only noticed when my saw wouldn't go back on. I had indeed been drilling during that time but I can't say for sure that's when it happened as nothing e.g. the lights were affected right where I was.
The kitchen was new in 2010 and all done from scratch, as in from the bricks up - all new plasterboard (on battens), all new electrics, etc. I was not there for any of this but I know it took place, as part of a whole-house renovation.
The fixings on one side of the cupboards were right in the middle of one of the vertical permitted cable zones (i.e. 4ft or so above a socket), so theoretically cables would have been permitted there. But the presence of the original cupboard fixings suggested to me that when the kitchen was installed it was known that there were no cables in that zone (it all being done at the same time), so I imagined it safe. Also, all of the kitchen sockets etc run along in a rim above the counter top and it would be an arbitrary place for one to go up vertically. So I decided it would be alright - maybe foolishly.
What shall I do tomorrow to check this out? There are other RCDs I can try switching around into that slot, that's an obvious first step I can try tomorrow.
Since the RCD stays tripped even with ALL grey circuit switches off, does that tell us anything? That seems to me like it would isolate all of the circuit(s) already, so if I had drilled through something it would be cut off and no longer troubling the RCD?
Thanks for any ideas