two trip switches on one socket

[ajsnr1]

hi ladies and gentlemen,
im in Dublin IRELAND so mainly similar to uk specs. ive had an electrician out today to fit an outdoor security light but was unable to do it because the socket he was going to take a fused spur from wouldn't isolate when he turned off the trip switch he had to turn off 2 trips switches beside each other in the CU before the socket would go dead. he had a look at the CU and couldnt find any erroneous crossed connections when checked at the board. the trip at the board when off would still show 230v unless you turned the one beside it off as well and did the same vice versa any ideas what could be causing it ? electrician had only allocated an hour for original job so has to come back next week to try and sort just looking for an idea of what may be involved thanks for any input or suggestions

 

[plugwash]

I don't know what inspection/testing your electrician has already done but (assuming the circuits appear to be two rings) I would expect the first step to be to disconnect the circuits from the breakers and make continuity measurements between all four of the cables.

If you are lucky then he finds that there are indeed two rings, puts each ring onto it's own breaker and job done.

OTOH if that isn't what he finds then this could easily snowball into a much bigger job, mapping out the wiring and figuring out how to turn whatever horrible bodges turn up into a sane socket circuit.

 

[ajsnr1]

thanks for the reply plugwash trying to give a digout I've tested all my sockets with a Lap socket tester it's one of those cheap plugin tester's with the 2 green lights and 1 red light arrays on the front anyway according to it one socket in my house is showing a live and neutral reversed all the rest ok would that cause the problem as described i would have thought that a situation like that would have caused a short and tripped a circuit breaker . i haven't opened any of the sockets ill leave that to him when hes back just trying to maybe point him in the right direction to save time and money of course thanks again

 

[EFLImpudence]

t one socket in my house is showing a live and neutral reversed all the rest ok would that cause the problem as described

No.

i would have thought that a situation like that would have caused a short and tripped a circuit breaker .

No.
A short circuit is when L and N contact each other.

i haven't opened any of the sockets ill leave that to him when hes back just trying to maybe point him in the right direction to save time and money of course thanks again

Show him Plugwash's post.