Upstairs light flicker

[brakespear]

Help! I have a problem with my upstairs lights - when switched on they do not light up - they occasionally flicker for a few seconds before going dead again.

We have one light circuit in our house with both upstairs and downstairs on it. Instead of a wire fuse it has a holder with a standard 13 amp fuse inside.

The lights downstairs seem unaffected - I have checked the wiring to the switches and fittings upstairs and checked the cabling in the loft but all seems OK.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[plugwash]

um that fusing arangment seems very dodgy

5A cartridge fuses for consumer units are a similar size but not the same size as plug fuses

anyway your fault sounds like a bad connection somewhere

i would start by inspecting and tightening all connections you can get to (ie in the fittings)

if that does not cure it get back to us

 

[brakespear]

Thanks - will check connections again.

Regarding the fuse - the holder for the fuse is smaller than a normal fuse wire holder. From what I can see the previous occupant of this house had an extra circuit fitted (possibly for the power out to the shed?), leaving only one space free for lighting - thus the 13 amp fuse in a non-standard holder. I agree it looks dodgy though.

 

[plugwash]

how many cables are there leading out from that fuseholder and are the connections on them properly made

have the upstairs lights been disfucntional ever since you moved in or has it just started

can you get us a photo of your CU?

 

[brakespear]

Checked and tightened connections and lights now work OK - I didn't notice any looseness but could be a flex fault or something.

As for the CU I am unable to supply a photo as I have nowhere to upload the photo. One red cable appears to run out of the fuse holder for the lights and looks OK - however, messing around with the inside of fuseboxes is a bit above my level

(It took me ages to get my mobile phone set up to talk to my PC so that I could transfer the photo to it)

 

[plugwash]

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8463&highlight=picture+upload

 

[brakespear]

Thanks - see below (apologies if these are not clear or not area you need to see):

Above fuses - missing is light fuseholder.

Above light fuseholder on right next to standard (not used)

 

[plugwash]

ok it looks like a 5A plug in cartridge unit

you say there is a 13A fuse in there and my guess is someone stuck that in to stop it blowing (either after merging cuircuits or after fitting higher power light fittings like downlighters or multi bulb units)

if there is only one cable into that fuse it seem unlikly that cuircuits were merged unless its done in a hidden box somewhere

those old wylex CUs should really be replaced anyway as they don't provide rcd protection but it is probablly best to get a sparky to do this given the fact you don't even want to mess with wiring in the existing CU and the fact it involves pulling the service fuse

 

[brakespear]

Thanks for your help.

 

[securespark]

Came across this exact problem in early 60's house.

One circuit for both floors, no 3 plate wiring - all jb's under floor. Had to go round from room to room pulling up carpets and boards. Found no jb's until reached the landing where there were several jbs handling ALL the connections for the lighting in the whole house. There was a loose connection on the live feed. Sometimes if you jumped up & down on landing, the lights would flicker......

40 years is long time - terms had worked loose....

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Sometimes if you jumped up & down on landing, the lights would flicker..........

Presumably the occupants told you that after you'd spent all that time lifting boards....

 

[securespark]

YES! How did you guess????? Would have saved them a HUGE amount of spondoolies.....

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Easy really - assuming you're not a complete b******, you wouldn't have racked up all those charges if they'd said up-front, "By the way, we've noticed that if you jump up and down on the landing....".

I hope they felt suitably stupid when they realised how much money they could have saved....