wierd problem

[17thman]

I called out to a house.

all sockets wired off one 32 amp fuse, originally a ring but it appears that a spur has been taken off at a point and feeds several others. now, the majority are fine, but 2 out of the eight in the kitchen, three of the four in the lounge, all of them in one bedroom and the landing one have no voltage difference between N and L, 240 between N and E and 240 between L and E, she said these sockets just stopped working this morning. these are all radial. its as if someone has swapped a conductor each of line and Earth in one of the radials. taken every socket off. compliant zs at working sockets, error zs on the wrong polarity ones. only been there and hour, will need to go back, any clues??

thanks

 

[Sherbertlion]

Broken neutral somewhere. Break it down.

 

[17thman]

if neutral broken, why is there 240v between N and E?

 

[RF Lighting]

Neutral feedback through a connected load.

 

[333rocky333]

because theres a load plugged in to one of the dudd sockets maybe.

More likely the outgoing neutral come out the last working, or neutrals problem in the first non working one rather than the cable broken though.
Being a radial should make it easier to find hopefully.

 

[securespark]

You did check all voltages after removing all loads from the circuit?

 

[Sherbertlion]

If neutral broken further down the line than the point you're testing at then you'll get 240v N-E.

 

[17thman]

i'll start with a continuity check on the neutral at all sockets then and see where it becomes discontinuous, thanks

 

[17thman]

I thought i had removed all loads from circuit, phoned customer, rthere is an ariel ampifier in the loft, thanks guys

 

[Taylortwocities]

I thought i had removed all loads from circuit, phoned customer, rthere is an ariel ampifier in the loft, thanks guys

That may not be your load. That TV amp will probably be on the lighting circuit.

 

[ColJack]

check for...

new looking wallpaper..
new looking sockets..
bits of plaster on the carpets by sockets..

these are all signs that the sockets have come off the wall recently..

did you check polarity in the sockets?

link L-N at the board, see which pins bleep on continuity, link L-E, repeat, link N-E, repeat...

or do it the easy way with a "socket and see" plug in tester..